Polly in the poo for purchasing IP

Her "business trip" if you could even call it that, was in Brisbane. She had no political related business at the Gold Coast which she and her husband traveled to and stayed overnight, putting the travel and accommodation costs for that leg of the trip on the taxpayer dollar.

It's a clear cut case of fraud and she deserves to be punished for it. Plain and simple really.

 

Using this logic every single politician will need to step aside for I'm sure political attend to some personal stuff while traveling. To say she has no political related business in the GC is completely wrong...she was the federal minister for health so unless you're telling me there are no hospitals, doctors, health care issues and sick people on the GC I think she probably had business there.

 

Most of this is political point scoring, but at the same time, some are taking the pi** out of all of us.

Claim your business stuff, but then do as all of us are expected to do, and pony up for your own personal expenses when doing your own thing.

Seems she was caught in a bit of a lie too.....saying it was impulse, yet she has a pre approval, she had intentions to buy & was obviously thinking about that area.

What we do not know, is if the business side of the trip was just made up too match with when she wanted to attend auction or just look for property in general.

 

I tend to agree @dabbler--in the case of Ley I tend to think it is more of a case of political point scoring rather than issue of merit. I have absolutely no issue if she was up there on biz and set aside some time for the apartment purchase--big deal, I'm more concerned to know whether she is improving our health system. Pollies are human and when travelling I don't think they are expected to be on the clock 24/7--so what they attend to some personal biz while on the road. Sure Ley's impulse purchase explaination probably did her more damage than the actual purchase. I get more frustrated by the fact that Ley's purchase got more time in the media than probably the substantive public health issues and policies we face. The general public just seems to take great pleasure in taking down a polly instead of taking an active interest in the governments policies.

 

What I have seen is a pattern over the years, is some that get away with almost murder, while others may get thrown under a bus.

It would seem many times it may be who you have annoyed, or some other issue between politicians, some get away with taking gifts and all sorts and manage to stay protected, happens at state and federal level.

In her case, it could be a move not just to weaken the govt, but it sort of seemed like they want to show that the govt does not support women and have not many in top spots (and this is a farce itself these days, jobs should be on merit not on gender), so they chose to throw her to the wolves.

If they had a real independent auditor and enforced rules, probably 70% of them would be thrown out, maybe even more, if they want to be that strict.

Some of them may also need to travel more, so would be unreasonable to expect they would not make use of any down time or do things normal people do, but they often seem tempted by petty things, like making claims for partners to travel when not really required, I mean they can fork that out of own pocket, it is a measly sum of money.

It is easy to be an armchair critic, it is not fun to travel all the time for work, so I think it is a bit disruptive to be dumping her, and a bit mean, a warning would be enough. But the other side, no matter who that is, would be crying for blood non stop, these fools can't see they are still doing all the things the public do not like IMO.

 

If the govt was serious about protecting their health minister, they would have pointed out straight up that the Gold Coast has a brand new hospital which would have required her to attend all kinds of promotional events and real meetings about real hospital business over the past two years. I wonder whether they would have been so "political" if the minister was male.

I also wonder whether the media would have made as much of a noise if she was doing something different in her spare time. We know how much they despise anyone buying holiday homes and investments.

 

Politicians claim the allowances that they're entitled to ie if they are allowed to claim $500/night to stay in a capital city or actual cost they will choose the option which is more beneficial to themselves. Likewise if they are permitted to be accompanied by a partner & get $$, they will claim their entitlement.

It's usually their staff who prepares the claim to ensure that the claim fits the guidelines.

 

It is like those who may be technically entitled to home owners grant but have IPs and income from medical business, I say unethical, they say legal & have an entitled attitude.

The problem for the politicians is some have dirtied the nest & now many are off side.

So they get more attention when it pops up now.

 

I do not think it was so much that she is female, but what the results do and what it looks like when they start harping on about lack of women.

Yeah, I think if she had not been buying what seems an expensive IP, would be no story, she set herself up for this fall, with so many crying about housing cost, could not be ignored, if she was off playing paintball or something, no one would have cared.

 

I recall a few years ago before the NSW fhog was changed. I knew of a few who had purchased their ppor at double the median at the time but had a string of cip under their belt. They qualified for the grant.

 

And in Victoria we've had the speaker and deputy speaker (both metropolitian MPs) rort living allowances intended for country MPs.

The most protracted controversy has come from Don Nardella who refuses to pay it back.

This article also mentions two IPs this member had.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/vi...d/news-story/fd0f1b311254be3960d6e2dd3f42dc1f

Their under $200k sale prices seem very low (assuming it's houses in the cheapest part of his area ie Melton South). Had he held on at that time instead of selling I suspect he'd have done better.

 

Allow me, to get you started. What did the smokers (assuming cigarettes) do this time ?

 

You will have to wait until my next "angry pants" day.

Today I am all calm and collected.

 

Malcolm Turnbull claims $10 of public money for wife to stay with him | Daily Mail Online

It is well known that our millionaire PM also claims $10 bucks for partner ROFL.

Everyone seems to be doing their bit towards expanding our budget deficit ;D

 

Isn't the Lodge good enough for MT & LT?