Today’s Expense Scandals Include Julie Bishop At The Polo And Mathias Cormann At The AFL!
At this point the government is basically just a parody of itself.
Another week, another story about out-of-touch politicians charging the public for extravagant trips that seem to have suspiciously little to do with the business of running the country.
Following recent revelations that health minister Sussan Ley billed taxpayers for a trip to the Gold Coast on which she bought a $795,000 investment property, it has now emerged that foreign minister Julie Bishop claimed more than $2,700 of public money so she could attend the Portsea Polo.
No, this isn’t a joke. Well actually, it is a joke. A very sick one. But it’s also one hundred per cent a thing that actually happened. Incidentally, if the image of a politician hobnobbing with socialites at a polo match doesn’t perfectly sum up the ludicrous nature of the entitlements system, then I just don’t know what does.
Bishop attended the event on January 9 2016 as a guest of Peroni and Jeep. Moreover, she’s expected to attend the same event again this weekend, this time as a guest of Alfa Romeo. Good that she’s spreading her influence around, I suppose.
In a short statement to the ABC, Bishop’s office said that “the Minister was invited and attended in her official capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party.”
The fact that the government is now embroiled in a second expenses scandal in as many weeks makes you wonder what Senator Mathias Cormann has been up to. After all, he’s the head of the department in charge of overseeing politicians’ entitlements.
Oh wait, never mind, I know what he’s been up to. He’s been bilking the public for airline tickets so he and his wife could attend to the AFL Grand Final. Turns out Cormann claimed $3,533 for flights to Melbourne for the match between Hawthorn and Fremantle in 2013. He and his wife were joined by trade minister Steve Ciobo, who charged taxpayers $1,102, and Tasmanian senator David Bushby, who came in at a bargain basement $863.
To borrow the lingo of Julie Bishop:
