Breaking: Abbott is making Barnaby Joyce the minister for weddings

How the One-eyed forget..

How the taxpayer helped Tony Abbott flog Battlelines

28 JULY 2010

Tony Abbott probably knows where his first dollar came from. His preoccupation with how much money is coming through the door is legend in Canberra amongst his colleagues.

Indeed the first thing to come out of Abbott's mouth at the outset of the leaders' debate concerned his personal finances."This election is about a fair go for families struggling with the cost of living pressures," Abbott declared. "My wife Margie and I know what it's like to raise a family, to wrestle with a big mortgage, with grocery bills and school fees."

Immediately after John Howard's 2007 election loss Abbott dubbed the period a "grieving" phase. But Abbott was lamenting more than just the fact that the Liberals had ceded power to Kevin Rudd. He mused publicly on the shock of losing his ministerial salary, complaining he didn't know how he was going to pay the bills.

Bills of the type that might be incurred in a national book tour for example. Department of finance documents raise the serious and politically damaging possibility that Abbott used taxpayer money to promote his 2009 book, Battlelines.

The revelation follows an investigation by The Drum in which the dates of Abbott's national book promotion tour have been matched to his travel expenses claims. The dates of his promotional tour were provided by his publisher, Melbourne University Press.

Abbott's home base is Sydney where Sarah Murdoch launched Battlelines on Tuesday, July 28. Two days later, the then-Opposition frontbencher flew to Canberra, to quote MUP,"address the National Press Club (NPC) to discuss Battlelines". There was also a book signing coinciding with the event.

According to the department of finance report detailing entitlements paid to MPs and senators from July 1 to December 31 2009 and tabled in the Parliament on the eve of the election, on July 30, the day of the NPC address, Abbott billed taxpayers $504.29 for the round trip flight back to Sydney.

On August 3 Abbott was in Melbourne for a Dymocks bookstore "Dinner Event" held at George's Restaurant in Camberwell. Abbott billed the return flight to Melbourne on the same date to taxpayers. Cost: $930.95.

On August 6 Abbott was in Melbourne again for a "Liberal Party Book Club Event". Again he booked the cost to the taxpayer, flying back to Sydney the next day; $465.47 each way. Then it was on to Brisbane on August 11 to promote Battlelines in an appearance at the Brisbane Institute. Total cost of the round trip, including a stopover in Canberra on August 12; $861.95.

Then came Perth on August 14 and 15. This time it was an event co-sponsored by The West Australian newspaper and Dymocks. According to the department of finance figures the total round trip cost was $2,461.23.

The total for all Abbott's travel that coincided with promotional events for the book comes to $5,689.36. That's a sizeable chunk of Abbott's total air travel costs of $29,633.85 for the same period. Then of course there's the cost of the Commonwealth cars and drivers that he also billed to taxpayers on the days he was promoting Battlelines. That final tally: $962.60.

All in all the taxpayer coughed up $6,651.96 in Battlelines-related travel.

At the very least these expenses are politically awkward. Was he also doing government business in the places where he promoted his book? Even if he was, is it appropriate to plug your book while you're there when taxpayers are paying the travel bill? Remember the savage gusto with which the Opposition, Abbott included, went after Kevin Rudd and former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon over claims they had not properly declared privately sponsored air fares to China.

A spokesman for[b] Tony Abbott dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign.

"All travel undertaken by Mr Abbott has been within the entitlement. This is a blatant attempt by Labor to smear and mislead."[b]

But this time, Tony, it's your turn to provide some answers.

..............................................................

So it wasn't even a mistake.....he actually thought we should pay for his book tour......and attacked anyone that said otherwise.

So why did he pay this back.

Documents released to The Australian under Freedom of Information laws yesterday show that Ms Gillard made the payment on March 9, 2007, as deputy leader of the opposition because of concern over a breach of rules forbidding the use of the car for commercial purposes.

The documents were provided yesterday after a 10-month battle by the former prime minister and her office to prevent the Department of Finance from following through on its decision to release the material.


.... well that Abbott person could have fought long & hard for 10 months i guess ... just to keep it HUSH HUSH   

INSIDERS
Broadcast: 04/09/2005

Edited Extract…….(Bracketed comments added)



Abbott admits to insensitive Brogden comments

Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott has offered to apologise( But he didn't) for making inappropriate comments about former New South Wales Opposition leader John Brogden, in the hours after his apparent suicide attempt.

BARRIE CASSIDY: I mentioned David Clarke - as I understand it you addressed a meeting of the Kenthurst branch of the Liberal Party on Wednesday night and you said this, "Whenever you hear that David Clarke is doing bad things, you know he is really doing a great job."

TONY ABBOTT: Yes, I do go to the Kenthurst branch and that sounds like something I might have said.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Beyond that, I'm told that you praised David Clarke, but not a word of praise for John Brogden who had only resigned 24 hours previously?

TONY ABBOTT: Well, I praised John Brogden in public that very day. Everyone feels very sorry for John Brogden. He did what he shouldn't have done, [At a function for the NSW Hotels Association, Brogden  was heard to describe Bob Carr's Malaysian-born wife Helena as `a mail order bride', and further, was seen to `pinch a female journalist on the bottom' and speak to another inappropriately.]………. but having done the dishonourable thing he did the honourable thing (Resigned)  and subsequent events are just tragic. That's what I said during the week and I'm happy to say it again now.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Keeping in mind that that speech at the Kenthurst branch was 24 hours after John Brogden had attempted to take his on life, did you begin your remarks by saying, "I just want to make it clear I have never told an inappropriate joke, I've never pinched a woman on the backside and I never make inappropriate gestures to women"?

(So whilst making an inappropriate joke…… Abbott tells his audience that he has never made an inappropriate joke….
And he never makes inappropriate gestures to women.
Apparently a former Female  Student Political adversary would disagree with the inappropriate gestures toward women bit.)


TONY ABBOTT: The point is that I made a speech to the Kenthurst branch of the Liberal Party and the guts of that speech was to say, look, we need to move on from the trauma and tragedy of the last couple of days. And one of the points that I made was that Barry O'Farrell had shown the kinds of gifts of character that we need to see more of in the State party if it's to flourish.


(So it’s about O’Farrells character not Abbott’s.)


BARRIE CASSIDY: Did you make those characters and do you think that's a way that a Health Minister in particular ought to behave? Do you think you lacked a bit of sensitivity there?

TONY ABBOTT: Well Barrie, look, I have never claimed to be the world's most sensitive person.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Well, let's go back to lunchtime on the same day. Now this is just 12 hours after John Brogden was rushed off to hospital.(After a Suicide attempt) You're now a guest speaker at another function and I'm told you were asked about a particular health proposal and you said this, "If we did that we would be as dead as the former Liberal leader's political prospects." (John Brogden’s)  Did you say that?

TONY ABBOTT: Look Barrie, I was at a fundraising gathering. It was a very small gathering. And I was no doubt commenting on a particular political proposal.

BARRIE CASSIDY: But inappropriately surely, and particularly as Health Minister? (OR Alternative PRIME MINISTER)

TONY ABBOTT: Well, Barrie look, as I said, if you want to accuse me of insensitivity, by all means. I have never claimed to be the world's most sensitive person.

BARRIE CASSIDY: In retrospect do you think that's something you should now apologise for?

TONY ABBOTT: Barrie, if it would make people feel better if I apologised, I'm always happy to apologise. I don't believe in standing on my dignity.

BARRIE CASSIDY: But you do accept they were inappropriate?

TONY ABBOTT: Barrie, lots of people say lots of things.



(That'd be a no.)


Our Prime Minister.

Ohh poor Tony is being attacked.



How unfair.

womble one could ask the same of the previous govt, whats the rush with a carbon tax that denied the electorate to vote on yet passed and since voted against, whats the rush for gonski (had to be done to a deadline)the failed media prohibition legislation and on it went
afl funny stuff all the old postings regarding your good mate tony, lets keep on topic here , if you have anything to add (current govt affairs) to this joke of a thread made before govt was even sworn in then post it
you know thebas and/or myself could dig here there and everywhere and find lots of dirt on the labor party but whats the point?
just keep it to the thread title which i'm sure you wont find any problems in the first few weeks since taking office, in fact its all been positive
ah well only 9 more years before you guys will get even a sniff

why haven't we got a date for parliament to resume yet???

i think the coalition are just doing the ... right thing ... 

and ... waiting until this amazing / bizarre / protracted ... PRESENDENTIAL STYLE ... labor campaign to elect their new leader (the 3rd in 4 years lol) is over

its  ...  1 albanese  2 shorten

i mean how hard is it for the labor voters to conduct this leadership ballot 

Tony Abbott’s dodgy Pollie Pedal expense claims
independentaustraliadotnet

Posted by davrosz in Community, Politics on 8 June, 2013 2:38 pm

Tony Abbott is, by the standards of most Australians, a very wealthy man ― so why does he claim taxpayers’ money for doing volunteer charity work?

LIKE MOST POLITICIANS, Tony Abbott receives a pretty decent wage.

How decent? Well, according to this 2012 article, Tony Abbott now earns (Pre- PM)an annual salary of $352,517.

To break that down, that’s $29,376.42 per month or $6,760.60 a week.*

Tony Abbott also receives income from other sources, although it’s not clear exactly how much he receives in additional income.

What is clear is that, according to the Parliamentarians Register of Pecuniary Interests, he also receives income from “casual journalism and media consulting” as well as royalties from his book Battlelines.

And as Tony Abbott reminded us all in his Budget Reply Speech, his wife Margie also works:

    Margie runs a community-based occasional care centre which has to live within its means just like every small business and every family.

I don’t know how much Margie earns, and quite frankly, it’s not really any of my business.

However, it would be safe to make the assumption that the combined income in the Abbott household would be at least $400,000 per year ― and most likely more than that.

Like most politicians, Tony Abbott is also able to claim significant expenses that are paid for by the taxpayers of Australia.

What surprised me, however, is that Tony Abbott continues to claim expenses for his “charity” work, such as the Pollie Pedal.

For those of you who don’t know, the Pollie Pedal is an annual cycling event that a number of politicians (State and Federal) take part in to raise funds for charities.

Tony Abbott was one of those responsible for starting Pollie Pedal which has gone on to raise around $2.5 million for charities.

That is certainly a commendable effort.

What isn’t so commendable is the fact that Tony Abbott (and possibly other politicians) claim expenses from the taxpayers of Australia for this charity work.

For the 2010 Pollie Pedal, Tony Abbott claimed $1,439.00 in expenses.

For the 2011 Pollie Pedal, Tony Abbott claimed $3,657.00 in expenses.

For the 2012 Pollie Pedal, Tony Abbott claimed $3,141.00 in expenses.

That’s a total of $8,237.00 in expenses ― and it doesn’t include Tony Abbott’s extremely high salary.

The expenses covering the 2013 Pollie Pedal are yet to be released, however, taxpayers will once again pick up those expenses as well, no doubt.

Tony Abbott’s charity work is commendable, given that the Pollie Pedal event is to raise funds for charity, one really needs to question why Tony Abbott claimed expenses for the charity ride ― his charity ride.

For someone who claims that Governments must live within their means, Tony Abbott apparently has no problem taking taxpayers money for doing what for most people would be unpaid volunteer charity work.

* Editor’s note: Abbott’s monthly salary figure is simply the the yearly amount divided by 12, while the weekly is the yearly divided by 365 then multiplied by 7.

(This story was originally published on phonytonyabbott.com and has been republished with permission. For more on Abbott’s rather cavalier attitude towards his expenses, read Benjamin Jones’ recent exposé: ‘If Slipper is guilty — then what about Abbott?’)

Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License

agrees with SC....labour getting into bed with the greens were the start of all the broken promises.

cheers Megsy at least some people on here with common sense

Abbott claimed travel costs to get a free ride in Coffs Harbour

    Brad Greenshields
    17th Aug 2013

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott claimed $1,150.99 in travel expenses to participate in the 2012 Coffs Coast Cycle Challenge alongside Cowper MP Luke Hartsuyker. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott claimed $1,150.99 in travel expenses to participate in the 2012 Coffs Coast Cycle Challenge alongside Cowper MP Luke Hartsuyker.

TAXPAYERS footed a bill of $1150 when Tony Abbott participated in the 2012 Coffs Coast Cycle Challenge.

Official documents from the Department of Finance show the Opposition Leader claimed $349 in travel expenses for his one-night stay in Coffs Harbour as well as $653.24 in airfares and a further $148.75 for the use of Commonwealth vehicles.

Further research shows Mr Abbott also claimed expenses to participate in other events last year - namely the Pier to Pub swim in Lorne, the Hervey Bay Surf Lifesaving Pier to Pub swim and Wagga Wagga's Lake to Lagoon fun run - at a total cost of $5510.88.

So are such activities official business or pleasure?

The general rule of thumb is Mr Abbott simply has to say he's doing something for a community group and it can be argued he is performing official business.

Mr Abbott rode alongside Cowper MP Luke Hartsuyker in Coffs Harbour as well as other members of the federal parliamentary cycling group called Riders on the Hill

Coffs City Rotary's Peter Wardman said the service club issued about 400 invitations to state and federal politicians to ride in the event, but he believed Mr Abbott was participating in response to an invitation from Mr Hartsuyker.

This is supported by a press release from Mr Hartsuyker's office, issued on July 26 last year, that indicated the MP "invited Mr Abbott to be part of the cycle challenge and the Coalition leader's office had today indicated that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, he will be a starter".

"As far as we (Coffs City Rotary) were concerned he (Mr Abbott) was a private citizen," Mr Wardman said.

Mr Wardman said he understood Mr Abbott attended a function the night before the Cycle Challenge. He also confirmed Mr Abbott did not attend the post-challenge presentations.

A spokesman from Mr Hartsuyker's office told The Advocate Mr Abbott attended two functions on the Saturday night - a drinks function at Coffs Harbour Golf Club and a dinner at C.ex Coffs.

"The main reason he came to Coffs was to participate in the cycle challenge," the spokesman said.

The Department of Finance told the Advocate it requires all MPs and senators to "personally certify that their use of entitlements are for the purposes for which they are provided, generally parliamentary, electorate and official business".

The department also "relies heavily upon self-assessment by parliamentarians for assurance that Commonwealth resources are used only within the terms of the relevant entitlement".

It was recently revealed Mr Abbott had to repay more than $9000 in travel expenses he racked up while promoting his book, Battlelines, in 2009.

Now Abbott's been forced to apologize to Malaysia for he and the Liberal Party insulting them.

Probably only because he couldn't run away at APEC like he does when an interview gets too tough here.

Plus he insulted the whole conference because he was late to a meeting and they had to start without him.


What an embarrassment to our country this dikhead is.

Where's Barnaby ....can't the Nat's promote him early...... and he take over.

Abbott clearly out of his depth.

You obviously hate him. Why abuse him by calling our elected PM a dikhead.

Election campaign is over!! He was elected to run this country for next 3 years. Get over it!!!

This thread was started as a joke and with every whinge and moan and cut & paste it is just being perpetuated.

cant be too harsh tho,anyone who went to Mirabella's wedding is worthy of payment

IMO

petty cash compared to the (NSW) Labor / Unions money machinations


and i would vote for Anthony in the soon to be upcoming Presidential Style Labor Leader Election ... for this reason 


Meanwhile Federal Labor leadership hopeful Anthony Albanese told Macquarie Radio that if he was offered a $3 million bribe he would report it to police.

some honesty is needed in the labor machine and anthony might well be the man to bring it

-------

http://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/19299522/unions-nsw-dragged-into-robertson-fray/

NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson has drawn his old union into the fray as he continues to swat away criticisms over his failure to report a multi-million-dollar bribe attempt.

The Labor leader has been under attack since revealing he rejected a $3 million sweetener offered to him by murdered debt collector Michael McGurk to sell him a Unions NSW holiday property called Currawong, in Sydney's north, for $30 million.

At the time of the offer Mr Robertson was head of Unions NSW.

NSW Greens MP John Kaye said Mr Robertson has failed to comprehend why it was important to report such matters.

"In the context of what has happened in the last decade in the Labor party, his failure to report the offer is actually a mark against his standing as a political leader," he told AAP.

Meanwhile Federal Labor leadership hopeful Anthony Albanese told Macquarie Radio that if he was offered a $3 million bribe he would report it to police.

--------

big labor big unions big money ... and only some of it honest maybe 

Kye:

AFL your hatred of our PM is unbelievable. Why dont you take yourself to another country for at least the next 3 years.

The hypocrisy of you bastards defies belief. Why didn't you fk off somewhere when Julia was PM? Instead you hung around here for three years whingeing blue murder at every opportunity.

Well, suck it up, sister. Tony Abbott is the worst prime minister this country has ever had. He's a ****, he's a liar, and he's got big ears. Fk him. He deserves no respect and he's not going to get any.

J U N K   t h e  M O N K


P. S.

This is a BAD government

Secong - she should've gone straight to an ETS faster - not forgetting business wanted a fixed price period to get things started.  Either way, pricing carbon is the right approach

Abbott winning friends and influencing people

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/vladimir-putin-gives-late-tony-abbott-cold-shoulder-at-apec-20131008-2v61f.html

He can't run away there so rocks up late instead - ffs you are representing our country Abbott, get it right!!!

ets is just a bankers benefit - swapping money (for a fee of course) in the name of an invisible substance that controls climate change to the tune of 0.000000000000000000000000000000001%
climate change is the reason for our existence , imagine living in the ice age again?