I’ve seen quite a few articles written recently about the outrage of Tony Abbott’s expense scandal. Van Badham made a good point about weddings, and how fuckwit it is to charge your attendance at one to the taxpayer. Mike Carlton wrote eloquently about ‘bludger Abbott’ immorally charging the taxpayer for his election campaign. At first I thought enough had been said on this matter. I thought all bases were covered with various reasons for varying forms of outrage about the scandal. However there is still one thing which I haven’t seen said, which I feel needs to be added to the pile. And this relates to the Liberals, their sense of entitlement and the way that this sense of entitlement clashes quite inconsistently with their rabid resentment of anyone who works in the public sector.
So we all know that public servant bashing is a favourite sport of the Liberals. Every time Liberals talk about job losses with a forlorn look and talk of insecurity for families, I am reminded that they only seem to care about job losses in the private sector. In the public sector, they are the ones slashing jobs. Yet, somehow in their very well crafted rhetoric of ‘government waste’, they manage to get away with painting public sector workers as a different species of Australian worker. Public sector job losses, whether they be in Canberra, or in health, education and community services around the country, don’t really count as job losses. Because, as any Liberal will tell you given half the chance, the public sector is inefficient and over-inflated, and not as good at getting things done as companies who need to make a profit and need to keep their shareholders happy. No matter whether this idea is truth (which it is not), nevertheless, it’s always the first priority of a Liberal government to make sure public sector workers are fired, for no other reason than it must sound efficient to do this. It all relates to the very fuzzy reasoning of Liberals around ‘small government’ and ‘efficiency’ and ‘waste’ and all the fluff they go on and on about all the time.
Remember when Howard got rid of thousands of public servants who he must have thought were just sitting at their desks twiddling their thumbs, in their ‘jobs for life’, playing solitaire and drinking coffee at the taxpayers expense? But then when he realised the people he had fired were actually running the country, he hired more of them, but just as individual contractors, at a huge hourly rate, which ended up costing the taxpayer more than the public sector workers who were fired. Well done Johnny. Keep them off the books and all that. Abbott is doing the same things as Howard – promising to fire 12,000 in Canberra alone, and that’s before his ‘commission of audit’ takes the axe to who knows how many more jobs. Will these Liberals ever learn? And even Abbott’s master, Murdoch got in on the act of public servant bashing in a recent tweet, saying:
“Aust election public sick of public sector workers and phony welfare scroungers sucking life out of economy. Others nations to follow in time.”
So, if Australians really are happy to vote for someone like Abbott who promises to sack the public service, what does the Australian electorate think about his sense of entitlement in racking up thousands of dollars of expenses, and charging them to the taxpayer? Doesn’t this make Abbott the hugest of all hypocrites to ever walk the earth? Do we need a new, stronger word for hypocrite, to explain the ferocity of Abbott’s wankery in using taxpayer funded travel to attend charity events, sporting events and weddings? Saying ‘pot-kettle-black’ just doesn’t seem to cut it. How about we just agree it’s un-Australian. On the one hand, Abbott implies that public sector workers are bludging off the taxpayers and need to be fired, while at the same time using taxpayers money for his own personal entertainment and political ambition. Perhaps Abbott is the one who should be sacked. #OneTermTony.
Public sector workers are hard working Australian people who have families, who pay tax, who don’t get paid as much as they would in the same job in the private sector, who work hard, who join clubs, who raise funds for charity, who buy or rent houses, who buy cars, who shop at Coles and Woolies, who deal with all sorts of stress by never knowing whether a new government is going to fire them, who don’t and never have assumed they have a job for life.
But Tony Abbott is just an arrogant man who needed to improve his public profile, after years of being known as the resident Liberal nut-job, and who needed to be seen with his wife and daughters having fun in the public eye to try to prove he doesn’t hate women, who needed to look like he did charity work, even if he wouldn’t actually do charity work if it cost him a cent personally, who needed to look fit and sporty, if in actual fact he wouldn’t get fit or go to a sporting event without charging it to the taxpayer, for his own personal vested interest of getting a better job as the Prime Minister of Australia. No one can claim that Abbott’s helping their community by riding a bike through it. Even if they live in a marginal seat. Abbott’s only interested in getting his face on the news, for his own benefit. And the news media laps this sort of crap up.
That’s what really infuriates me about Abbott’s expense scandal. He’s firing honest, hard working public servants, to the detriment of the communities they serve (us), while he spends thousands of taxpayer dollars on his self-entitled quest to have himself elected to the position of Prime Minister. While he’s promoting his public image. But while he’s swanning around the country at our expense, and shouting his wife and daughters the lifestyles of a Paris-Hilton-esque socialite at our expense, what work is he actually doing for the community he wants to represent? How has he earned his government funded-salary, let alone the extra costs of his travel and accommodation, when he’s spent his entire time campaigning for himself? Next time Tony Abbott calls the public sector a ‘waste’, can someone please hand him a mirror.
Follow @Vic_Rollison
Media Inequality 
Stronger than hypocrite?
Perhaps saboteur.
Abbott is avaricious rampant capitalism’s chosen “Judas goat”, masquerading as a conservative – leading propagandised, ignorant and complacent Australians to surrender the nations “common wealth” to his powerful sponsors.
Another democracy conquered by greedy moguls.
Saboteur? Yes. As well as Traitor and all the synonyms that go with that.
Victoria The ALP have been just as bad if not worse in terms of the expenses that they claim.
Watching Tony Abbott and his Storm Troopers running rampant round the country , i feel as if i am watching an episode of the Twilight Zone and when i try adjusting my set i still see the same picture and i wake up the next day thinking i was just dreaming but then i realise it is real ,very real and very frightening. People say he only won by 30000 votes but mark my words,these bastards are brilliant at one thing and that is winning elections and they will crush anybody or organisation who stands in their way and dont sell Abbott and his cohorts short,they are as cunning and devious as shit house rats and my hope is that they will be a one term Government brought down by their sheer arrogance ,stupidity and hubris.
Abbott the hypocrite and tells fibs and will never be able to Stop the Boats from coming to Australia.
I just saw a photo of tony abbott and he looks like he has dyed his hair. First there was the botox and now the haired dyed. It is marketing in a big way, that’s what they did with George W Bush and he was an idiot. I am really fearful for Australia if Abbott signs the Free Trade Agreement as it means that big corporations will be able to sue Australians if they stand in their way to make milllions out of raping our land. It must have been on the list of the IPA.
Is anyone else worried? I feel sick every time I hear his voice on the tv, I can’t stand him and what he stands for. How am I going to cope with the next three years. How did people vote for this idiot, maybe it was brainwashing with the 3 word slogan.
Don’t forget we have to start our own three words slogans, that’s how you win government. The first is One Trick Tony, One Term Tony, Worst Government ever, Worst Prime Minister ever. Then there’s Joeliar (Joe Hockey). I am sure the Daily Lies will have them on the front of the paper dressed as pigs at the trough. You know they only do balanced stories. and maybe Alan Jones can start saying Joeliar (you know the budget emergency). You don’t need any vision for
Australia, just slogans and you win. Also, you might need Rupert on your side. I wonder how Newspoll will report on Abbott’s popularity. I haven’t seen a poll since the election, maybe it’s not good news for Abbott and they don’t want the public to know. Please if there is a God, help us get rid of this moron before he really damages Australia.
Totally agree with you Julie, the libs are beginning to sound more like Facist Germany, with there refusal to answer questions, I have a slogan for you Tone The Drone & His Maniacial Mantra. .I can’t stand how he greets other leaders, he always looks like he’s going to knock them over, he is so aggressive & in their face.
I have to agree with Iain Hall on this occasion when he writes that (some) Labor members have been as bad as (some) LNP members when it comes to expenses rorting. However where Abbott leaves himself vulnerable in this matter is his “holier than thou” mantra when it comes to painting Labor as rotten & corrupt as opposed to the supposed “whiter than white” image of the LNP.
Whilst not excusing the previous government & the governments prior to that for their inaction on this issue. As far as I am aware there has not been any suggestion in recent times that the actual leader of a political party has been actively involved in expenses rorting. Perhaps worse is Abbott’s failure to condemn his senior Ministers for their wedding rorts whilst also attempting to justify his own rorting with his sporting activities & push bike rides.
Abbott has spent several years doing anything he could to gain the Prime Ministership. He has not hesitated to destroy reputations of his opponents by any means including hysterical condemnation of “Labor rorters” Unfortunately for Mr Abbott, with great power comes great responsibility. To retain credibility he needs to show a lead on this matter. Despite the hysterical bleatings of his News Ltd boosters Andrew Bolt & Chris Kenny and the dreadful Janet Albrechtsen, his claims for expenses related to sporting events & bike rides will never pass the smell test of public opinion. I think he would gain much needed credibility if he simply acknowledged that these claims were never legitimate in the court of public opinion, refund the money, instruct his Ministers to refund their doubtful claims & pledge to do the right thing in future. This would not only put pressure on Labor to follow suit but would set a higher bar of public trust that would benefit everyone including himself.
Isn’t it funny how politicians and seemingly especially Liberal politicians seem to forget that they themselves are public servants. So it looks to me that they should be sacking themselves and consider themselves to be a waste. And i would say that to sack Tony Abbott would be the greatest saving for the government. Victoria, yes, hypocrite is too kind a word for this man, we need a whole new vocabulary to describe him and even that may not be adequate.
As it turns out, the Libs don’t want to Stop the Waste after all. Nor are they too keen to Stop the Boats either, they’ll just keep them a secret. Returning the economy to surplus is no longer a priority, in fact they are going to borrow even more. Any and all of Australia is now for sale to foreign investors, Hockey is begging them to buy. Slipper is prosecuted by the Libs over $1000, whilst Abbortt gets to pay back $84,000 which he rorted from the taxpayer. Oh, and that thing about Honesty and Trust? Turns out the LIbs were just joking about that as well.
Thankyou so much stupid Australians. Whatever happened to your bullshit detectors?