Subsidising Tony’s lifestyle
Tony Abbott’s “lifestyle choice” to live hundreds of kilometres from his place of work is costing Australians a small fortune.
During the election caretaker mode the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet arranged a 12-month lease on an inner-south Canberra home for Abbott or Kevin Rudd to live in while the Lodge underwent repairs and renovation.
When Tony Abbott won the election, he chose not to live in the house, telling us he was saving us money by staying at the Australian Federal Police college when in Canberra. That decision cost us $120,000 – $39,107 for rent, $65,000 for a commercial settlement to terminate the lease in November, $1,403 for a property broker to find the home in the first place and later to look for an alternative tenant, and $14,144 in legal advice on the drafting and ending of the lease.
Abbott is the only Prime Minister other than Howard to choose Kirribilli House as his official residence.
The budget for the prime minister’s official residences will increase from $1.61m in 2013-14 to $1.7m this financial year, rising to $1.77m, $1.81m and $1.86m in subsequent years.
When Howard moved into Kirribilli House, two sets of stairs were installed and a bathroom was refitted at a cost of $185,000. In their third year of residence a new dining room table and 20 chairs were ordered, a cost of $82,000. A door required widening to get the table inside.
In January 2014, it was reported that Abbott had spent more than $120,000 overhauling Kirribilli House since winning the election – including $13,000 on a family room rug.
The makeover of the Prime Minister’s official Sydney residence included $64,988 of landscaping advice relating to dilapidated paths and how to prevent tree roots invading garden walls. And yes, this was just for advice.
Another $24,343 was spent on floor coverings, and $19,443 contract for roof repairs.
It is estimated that it would require $10 million to bring the place up to scratch. Meanwhile, renovations at the Lodge are behind schedule and over budget.
Originally planned to take eight months at a cost of $3.19 million, the Abbott government signed off on changes to the contract in December last year, adding another 12 months to the completion date and upping the price tag to $6.38 million.
The cost is 50% more than knocking down the Heritage-listed building and starting again, one quantity surveyor claims.
Aside from the costs of renovating and maintaining these two official residences, the costs of commuting to and from Sydney are significant. The PM’s private jet is stationed in Canberra so, when he wants to go to work, it flies up empty to pick him up. Likewise, when he comes back to Sydney, the jet returns empty to Canberra.
In December 2003, Fairfax revealed
“John Howard’s decision to use Kirribilli House in Sydney as his principal residence has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars since he became Prime Minister in 1996.
This includes the $7500 it costs every time he takes the one-hour flight between Canberra and Sydney.
The RAAF’s No. 34 Squadron operates the VIP fleet of five aircraft, which costs $60 million a year to run. The Prime Minister and his staff are not the only passengers; the flights are used by senior ministers and by the Opposition during election campaigns.
According to the Department of Defence’s Schedule of Special Purpose Flights for the second half of last year, the Prime Minister ordered 43 flights between Sydney and Canberra.
Ten of those flights flew empty between Canberra and Sydney. Each flight cost $7500. “
During his 12 years in office, Howard cost the taxpayers $18.4 million in flights between Canberra and Sydney. One can only assume that these costs have increased significantly since then.
In May 2014, as the budget was about to be announced, it was revealed that four Coalition members used a taxpayer-funded jet to fly from Perth to Canberra, costing more than $140,000. The RAAF VIP jet flew empty to Perth to carry four Government MPs and eight staff back to Canberra. Surely these MPs who have made a lifestyle choice to live so far away from their place of work, could also make the choice to travel on a commercial flight and save us hundreds of thousands.
A few weeks ago, despite it being a Parliamentary sitting week, Abbott fired up the VIP jet, with its RAAF flight attendants and first class service, for a quick trip to Sydney to unveil the government’s foreign investment options paper along with his Treasurer Joe Hockey. After their 20 minute press conference, they flew back to work in Canberra.
And then there are the endless claims for payment for Tony’s choice to take part in sporting and charity events.
When the Prime Minister said the government couldn’t “endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices” I guess he meant other people’s lifestyle choices because we apparently have endless money to support his.
61 comments
Login here Register here-
M-R
-
Keitha Granville
-
Gitte
-
Kaye Lee
-
Kaye Lee
-
townsvilleblog
-
Kaye Lee
-
Gilly
-
mars08
-
Kaye Lee
-
Rosemary (@RosemaryJ36)
-
Kaye Lee
-
donwreford
-
Kaye Lee
-
Ian Sprocket Muncher Parfrey
-
David
-
Lyle Upson.
-
Kaye Lee
-
-
Wayne Turner
-
Zathras
-
lawrencewinder
-
Aortic
-
David
-
Public Citizens of Australia
-
Bob
-
DanDark
-
Kaye Lee
-
Ro
-
David
-
DanDark
-
DanDark
-
Kaye Lee
-
Hefina
-
DARREN JAMES
-
Gordon Riley
-
Anne
-
paul walter
-
DARREN JAMES
-
Liza Neil (@LiViNow)
-
nancy
-
Rob031
-
EveryVoiceCounts
-
Matters Not
-
D JAMES
-
Reality Bites
-
Kaye Lee
-
xiaoecho
-
Kaye Lee
-
Florence nee Fedup
-
Florence nee Fedup
-
Florence nee Fedup
-
Kaye Lee
-
Matters Not
-
Anne Joselin
-
Florence nee Fedup
-
tansy
-
Florence nee Fedup
-
-
Scott
-
Tommy
Return to home pageChrist, what a total (_¤_) he is …
if any wanna be government made a promise to stop all of this excess they would win a mass of votes from all of us ordinary people. These are not the only excesses that need to go. There should be a hotel, or campus of some kind in Canberra for MPs to stay in when they are in Parliament. Then, the daily living allowance they receive could just be wiped out. If they choose to stay in other places – their own flats, their mate’s flats – it would be at their own expense. They can be flown to Canberra from their home State, and back again – but no other free trips unless they are on OFFICIAL business. Real business, not junkets to curry favour with all and sundry.
I could go on and on about the “lifestyle choice” and “entitlements” of these drains on our economy but I think we all know it. We just need someone to do something about it.
My son forwarded me a page about how much world leaders are paid, just before this page arrived in my inbox. I’m truly disgusted. No wonder he didn’t want a double dissolution election, he didn’t want his gravy train derailed. https://www.businessvibes.com/blog/How-Much-Salaries-World-Leaders-Get-Paid
From Gitte’s link….
“Among all the reported world leaders, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott tops the world leader’s salary list”
How ridiculous is that!
Pay peanuts, you get monkeys, pay more, you get a gorilla
Keitha,
I so agree. It seems damn obvious. Build a secure accommodation facility for our politicians to stay in, with luxury suites for visiting dignitaries. Then we can dispense with paying a fortune to these private security firms as well as saving a fortune on comcars. I kind of resent paying off politician’s wives mortgages.
Well, I’m buggered if I know, the taxpayer (including we disabled pensioners who pay GST) are subsidizing the lives of small businesses, big businesses, politicians both State and federal and local yet our prospects are all downhill if Abbott gets reelected we will die the death of a thousand cuts by our pensions being further reduced, we exist below the poverty line now. Mercy has been spoken about a lot lately, including an offer to keep two convicted drug traffickers alive in an Indonesian prison for life, how about a small show of mercy for struggling Australians who have not committed a crime, but have become disabled due to employment factors? No, no mercy there, we are losing all the things that used to make us unique in the world as Australians, I’m glad I’M 60 and on the way out instead of on the way in, I feel sorriest for the generations that follow, what have we allowed to be done to us, it’s frightening and bloody unfair.
townsvilleblog,
60 is the new 30 😉
Chicken feed compared to policy costs purely to keep in power. Like $1,000,000,000 the estimated costs of military involvement in the Middle East, which are all about the politics of fear.
The age of entitlement isn’t over.
or the $20 billion for submarines or $12 billion for dud jets that don’t look like being ready any time soon or the $4 billion in fossil fuel subsidies or the $30 billion in superannuation tax concessions ….
Their entitlements are chicken feed comparatively and the policy decisions far more important but if he wants to bring up lifestyle choices…..
Why does not the press get hold of this information and publish it widely?
Rosemary,
The information does come from collating numerous press articles. They have to come up with breaking news every day, leaks from unnamed sources, latest press releases. I have the luxury of sitting back in my jammies and joining the dots.
Kaye Lee, has made the right analogy, the Abbott’s description of Aboriginal being a choice of life style to be uprooted from their traditional land, no doubt for eventual mining exploitation, hard to imagine the Australian people voted in such a hypocritical and conceited self indulgent freak, I suppose it would take some time to know the mind of a low class salesman before knowing he is just another brick in the wall.
“the emphatic view of residents and those who work with those in outstations is that they save taxpayer dollars, protect heritage, reduce crime and improve health and happiness. Properly supported, they can also offer pathways toward engagement with mainstream Australia.
Sue Davenport is the manager of cultural heritage at Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (KL), an organisation representing the Martu people in WA’s Western Desert in the Pilbara region that has employed some 350 people as rangers.
“We have three remote communities – communities Tony Abbott is talking about – that are dry communities, where there is very little violence, everyone is turning up to work and the kids are going to school. Which bit of that is not working?” she asks.
An evaluation of programs aimed at achieving social, economic and cultural goals for the Martu published in December found they equated to a reduction of 1150 alcohol-related incidents involving the justice system over a five-year period.
Prepared by SVA Consulting, it found the programs had “generated transformative change” across Martu communities.”
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/im-sorry-i-voted-for-him-outstation-residents-angry-at-tony-abbott-over-lifestyle-choices-comments-20150312-142w4q.html
The photo at the head of this article explains it all.
Our beloved P.M, Chimp Ears, has “Small Man Syndrome”!
It all fits together now.
I understand if he keeps racking up the entertaining expenses he will have created a new record for all PM’s in a 3 year period (if he survives that long). that only includes entertaining at official residences. Hate to think what it is with his many shindigs in his private dining room in Parliament Building
my view on some of this is that i have no underlying problem with the residences and the VIP jets … making best use of those assets of course always requires analysis to minimise costs … i can assume that analysis is occurring
whilst I like laughing at the Abbott, best comedian ever, i would not be critical of the Abbott on this matter in view of what i have read and struggle to understand about these assets
cheers
TREASURER Joe Hockey wined and dined world financial leaders at the G20 conference in Washington in April, at a celebration that cost taxpayers $50,000 for the services of celebrity chef Shane Delia.
On the menu at his Washington dinner was barramundi, Victorian Wagyu beef, WA truffles and a “eucalyptus ice” dressed with Tasmanian leatherwood honey.
Despite declaring “the age of entitlement is over’’ in his Budget speech, Mr Hockey’s own Treasury department paid the TV chef to fly business class and airlift truffles from Australia to Washington DC last month.
The $50,000 tender for the event, posted publicly, simply referred to “provide professional chef for Washington event.’’
The April 10 invitation-only dinner was attended by about 60 financial ministers and central bank governors.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/joe-hockey-hosts-50000-dinner-before-delivering-hardline-budget/story-fnihsrk2-1226921420288
Attorney-General George Brandis racked up a $1123 dinner bill on taxpayers during a visit to London this year. He and his three guests ordered three bottles of 2010 vintage Tyrrell’s Semillon-Sauvignon and supped on a bottle of upmarket Italian Vin Santo del Chianti Bonacchi dessert wine, as well as glasses of Laurent-Perrier Champagne.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/george-brandis-obscene-1100-dinner-funded-by-taxpayers-20141228-12e3ue.html
The Abbott government is facing more scrutiny over travel entitlements, with fresh documents revealing Education Minister Christopher Pyne and his wife had a taxpayer-funded $30,000 trip to London and Rome in April.
The trip included taxpayers being billed $1352 for Mr Pyne to “day let” a room at a swish London hotel before he and his wife, Carolyn, flew back to Australia later that day, and more than $2000 for VIP services at Heathrow Airport.
Under the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet’s travel guidelines, ministers’ spouses are not normally allowed to go on trips but documents published by the Finance Department show Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s chief of staff Peta Credlin approved Mrs Pyne’s travel.
Mr Pyne also charged taxpayers $244 for a passport application (presumably for his wife) made on April 15 and a further $108 to have it processed as a priority.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/questions-arise-over-christopher-pynes-taxpayerfunded-trip-with-his-wife-to-london-and-rome-20140922-10k6zr.html
Pingback: Subsidising Tony | Adjusting my background
It’s another example of the insane hypocritical Abbott PROJECTING yet again.
This website http://imputeation.blogspot.com.au/ provides some evidence of systematic Ministerial use (or abuse?) of Travelling Allowance.
If they’re not examples of the taxpayer funding the Lifestyle Choices of politicians I don’t know what is.
REVOLUTION: NOW!
And this gormless goon criticised Rudd for having his snout in the trough. Here’s an idea, when the House is sitting, instead of spending millions for the back bench to sit and nod or ask Dorothy dixers let them sit in their electorates and use technology if they are required.
Damn good idea Aortic
You make $500,000 a year.
You’ve already skipped out on pay education fees for your daughter – ironically trying to deregulate universities.
You shout to the mountain side that we’ve in a time of Economical Crisis.
Yet regardless of this, you take personal funding for luxuries.
You ignore & side-track the public opinion to push your own agenda, in doing so, voiding your right to represent Australian citizens.
You sir, are both a mockery to politics and a unethical, self-centered human being, undeserving to live in this country.
Not that you actually had valid proof of citizenship to begin with.
A friend of mine did an exercise in the late 1990s in his own time comparing the cost of Australia’s federal parliament against that of the UK and found it was far greater and at that time it was costing us around 1.3 million dollars per Polly including pay, allowances, staff, electoral officers, govt cars etc. My guess is that this amount would now be at least 2 million. I might add that this info was given to the Presiding Officers who totally ignored it. He then passed it onto a journalist and was promptly sacked even though the information was collected on his own time from publically available information.
“Two St Patrick’s Day events have decided not to screen the Prime Minister’s video message as the blowback made headlines in Ireland”
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbotts-cringetacular-st-patricks-day-video-20150313-143cuv.html
Gee he’s a brilliant orator isn’t he Dan. Scripted down to the last hand movement. Cringeworthy indeed. Compare it to Obama speaking. And Tony gets paid more than him. He’s humiliating.
Vote for me to be prime minister, a regular wage is all I need and I’ll get shit sorted and not be a prick to every other nation, or be racist or sexist or homophobic. And I’ll install good internet to everyone. Pretty much sorted the country.
That ‘My God I can’t believe what I am seeing and hearing’ St Patrick’s Day sorry I cant make it abomination of Abbotts on You Tube was so disgusting, he had to be either pissed or high as a kite. No sane person would have presented himself as PM of this country to progress for 90 seconds to belittle one of the largest proud groups in the country, either by birth, or immigration.
I am proud, immensely proud to have a father who immigrated from a small village in Cork when he was 9 yrs of age, proud to have Irish blood on both maternal and paternal sides.
How dare he Abbott, how bloody dare he?
Kaye
How does he do it, how does he get away with being such an idiot, and acting like such a duffus
He is an embarrassment on a grand scale, I havnt commented much last few days because what is there left to say, other than abuse the crap out of the idiot of a bloke who somehow crawled it’s way from the cave into the top seat of this country, but I left a bit of a I am just sooooo pissed off rant on Michaels article this morning,
Tones uses the term ” life style choice ” to describe why our first people who have been it’s estimated lived 60 000 years or more on this continent, where they have lived for thousands upon thousands of years, and it’s a “life style choice” his apparent ignorance is astounding.
For some one who said a month ago he wasn’t going to pick anymore fights, he sure has short term memory loss then. His even got the Irish off side now.
geeeezuzzzzz give me strength is all I can say , another what 17 months of this shit from these idiots and I will be ready for the padded cell I reckon…….:)
David, There are 2 videos, and he says different things in them,,, what a tosser, I couldnt believe what I was hearing either, I reckon he had already had the three Guinness before he did those videos,,
Yep another ” how dare he” moment for the captain Cockhead
He just gets weirder and weirder. Today he was making an announcement about freight from Tasmania. To do that he, of course, flew down to have his photo taken in a factory. It was an onion factory and, with no fish to fillet, wood to plane or ice to chuck, he ate an onion with the skin on. I mean seriously….it’s getting beyond a joke.
http://junkee.com/stop-everything-and-watch-this-vine-of-tony-abbott-biting-into-a-fcking-onion-with-the-fcking-skin-on/53027
I have just shared this on face book to a few people i know. everyone who has a face book can do the same.He has to be exposed.
Yep it really is just a kick in the guts to all us decent tax payers.Just seems this extravagance is getting worse who gives Brandis and all them other goons the right to buy all that alcohol and everything else on our behalf .Greed, corruption and non compliance and non transperancy is really gutting this once wonderful country of ours.
Seriously, why can’t any sitting Prime Minister just live in Canberra for their tenure? Also, why spend so much on renovating when it’s been renovated to shit?! It’s good! It’s hardly a fixer upper at this point! The Age of Entitlement is Over?! Bull-****ing-Shit!!
As Rosemary said – why is this not been brought to the public’s eye??????Where are the journalists – oh that’s right they are owned by Mr. Murdoch.
The series of comments from Kaye Lee add up to a coherent and damning critique or thesis of the contradictions and hypocrisy people can associate with right wing politics, its myopia, irrationality, infantilism and lack of reflexivity or sense of the existance and welfare of other people.
The wrong people with wrong mindset control things and know not where they take themselves and all others.. perhaps a precipice?
Perhaps Im moving away from the subject but that’s also another reason why media ownership should never be in the hands of 1 major player in this country or is that already to late?
Hey Aortic! That is such a good idea! And we might actually get a decent NBN out of it !!!!!
Thanks Kaye! Shockingly good article once again!
the guy is a total “thing” – he does NOT represent me!
I’ve been racking my brain-cell as to who Abbott reminds me of. I think I’ve got it: Gordon Brittas of the ‘Brittas Empire’. I don’t think Abbott’s clever enough to satisfy the claims of conspirator theorists. I think he’s just a dumb smuck installed and exploited by really nasty forces (like Pauline Hanson was) to present a likable face to their anti-democratic agenda.
Perhaps we should focus on the latter and not to be deflected too much by the former. It lets the real bastards off the hook.
Check out Black As – a group of young Yolngu men putting together their own tv show. They want to show the country just what their lifestyle ‘choice’ is about and I reckon the more of us that support them the better. Plus the episodes they’ve put together so far are awesome. pozible.com/project/190802
Always disturbed when contributors base their arguments on being ‘taxpayers’, as though being a ‘taxpayer’ somehow gives one the right to some type of superiority, or inferiority, when it comes to being a participant in the democratic process.
Whether one pays taxes or not is completely irrelevant to a ‘democracy’ (or ought to be) which by definition is determined its citizens’ active participation in choosing and calling into account its elected government.
If ‘taxpaying’ is (or was) to be a relevant criteria, then surely the amount paid, or not paid, logically becomes important.
Do we really want ‘government’ to be determined by citizens or by taxpayers?
And yes I know that there is a significant overlap.
It’s the principle I am talking about. Why should big taxpayers have a greater say compared with small taxpayers? Or are they one and they one and the same?
Its the taxpayers money that’s getting wasted, of course we should have a bigger say .Any taxpayer will know what I mean and how they feel about this. Its what this story is about remember.
Kaye old media don’t report this because they don’t want to…they are in it up to their necks with their privileged pollie mates
Reality Bites,
The media know where their bread is buttered. Be nice and you get a seat on the plane. Criticise us and you will be frozen out.
“HUNDREDS of millions of dollars will be spent bolstering the RAAF’s fleet — and the prime minister is in line for a new long-range jet, promising uninterrupted global travel.
The $600 million lease on the current RAAF fleet of two Boeing 737 business jets and three smaller Challenger 604 aircraft will expire next year and the government will seek agreement from media companies to limit criticism of any decision to opt for bigger planes.
One of the Airbus KC-30A multi-role tanker transports would be converted to a VIP configuration and would service the prime minister’s international travel needs.
It would carry the PM’s entourage and the travelling media pack, who are currently forced on to commercial planes as the government’s existing Boeing 737 BBJs are too small.
Any negative publicity would be limited to plush add ons such as gold taps or marble sinks.
The Boeing 737 BBJ aircraft are operated by 34 Squadron at Fairbairn in Canberra and are used by the Prime Minister and the Governor-General for official overseas trips, but they are too small to carry a full complement of press gallery journalists and crews.”
http://www.news.com.au/national/prime-minister-tony-abbott-seeks-media-deal-over-vip-jets/story-fncynjr2-1226793311718
Thank you Matters Not for articulating a very important point. Those crying ‘taxpayer’ ,usually in a holier than though manner, are merely excercising their state sanctioned bigotry. Our despicable Liberal government fosters this bigotry by dogwhistling about welfare recipients, their general irresponsibility and the need to publicly signal the difference between them and ‘taxpayers’ by economic aprtheid (the Basics Card).
We saw another example of this dogwhistling to ‘taxpayers’ a few days ago with the base assertion that Aboriginals were excerising nothing more than an lifestyle choice by desiring to live on their ancestral lands and striving preseve their culture.
We have a social darwinian government that consider anything that isn’t able to be bought and sold as worthless and a drain on society – Society being those workers and businesses that contribute to the governments coffers, children excepted because they are a source of future revenue.
Every Australian is a taxpayer contributing GST on most things they purchase, though I do take your point.
Matters not, you are correct. We are all taxpayers, even those on the dole. This is more true, as over the years, we have moved from progressive direct taxation to regressive taxes such as GST.
The tax load is being pushed more onto low income earners, matters not if they are employed or not. Even those on outstations will see much of their meagre benefits going on tax.
All, whether rich or poor, benefit from what the taxes are spent on. Yes, even the rich, find they still have to rely on the rest of society to survive.
Not too sure how money spent can be wasted, unless it is holed up under the bed, not spent. Each dollar finds it way back to the government. While4 it is going around, it is keeping people employed. I see some are trying to suggest, once a dollar is spent, it is gone. Sorry, not true.
Do we really want no one to live in more than half of Australia. It would see beautiful country unprotected and going to waste. Maybe government should find a way to make our inland productive. It is unique.
Florence,
Once it is “uninhabited” then there are no native title objections to mining
The right to vote in elections has a long history. Here’s a few facts re Queensland.
The more ‘properties’ qualification gave extra voting rights. ‘Wealth’ was a precondition for suffrage.
Things are starting to change. But big landowners in multiple electorates could still vote more than once.
Allowing females to vote, even if they didn’t own property. What next?
Women you see weren’t quite up to participating in the ‘house of review’.
More here. http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/explore/history/key-dates.
There are any number of people in Australia who pay taxes but still don’t have the right to vote and who have no say as to how government money should be spent. It’s the same when we go overseas where we pay all types of government taxes and the like. Being taxpayers in those countries is not to be equated with citizenship. Nor should it be.
The point is simple but very important. It’s citizens who have the right to vote because it’s ‘citizenship’ that is the crucial point. Paying or not paying taxes is irrelevant in our democracy re voting rights. But politicians of every stripe rarely, if ever, point that out, preferring to appeal to ‘economic man’.
It’s a pity.
I have never understood why there are two official residences and why, when Parliament is in Canberra. the PM can CHOOSE to live in Sydney. It doesn’t make sense. Have his official residence where he works – Parliament, and like everyone else, he can go home to his own house when Parliament isn’t sitting if he wants to. Canada has a similar situation, where Ottawa is not the most prominent city. There is only one residence for the PM, though, not extra ones for his pleasure or entertaining in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver.
Wonder why Abbott double the cost and extended the length of time for the Canberra resident. Should have been in it by now. Suspect that would not suit Margie,
how is it possible to get rid of this man as PM? seriously, how? if the majority think he is an absolute fool (there used to be an expectation that you would have to be intelligent to hold such a high position), then there must be a way to get rid of him. to wait another 17 months will be too late, too much irreversible damage. where is the people power?
Getting rid of Abbott is not enough. There has to be a way for the whole front bench to go with him. That is a bigger challenge. I think the useless Hockey is being set up as the fall guy. Even Madam Speaker attack him yesterday, in QT
Madam Speaker needs to be the first to go.
Pingback: chrismbrworld
Rosemaryj36
The media that won tony the election will more or less keep him there for the immediate future. Thus the favours keep coming. Howard even blamed the RBA for jacking up loan rates 3 weeks before his demise. It’s planned.
guillotine