On 2nd July give your $2.63 to the Breakers Party

 

On 2nd July we will see the whites of their lies! Mind you, most Australians no longer think it matters which major party is in government because they all serve only their own and other vested interests rather than those of the majority. There isn't even a real difference between the two major parties anymore because they all lie and cheat the same.

There are currently 15,468,329 enrolled voters and each vote is worth $2.63, or a total of well over $40 million. And that's just to fund the election campaign!

Once we've given them our $2.63, they put their collective snouts in for the real money because Australian politicians are amongst the most highly-paid elected representatives in the world.

As of 1 July 2014, the base salary for backbenchers is $195,130. According to the Parliamentary Superannuation Remuneration Tribunal, the average base salary for each Senator and Member of the House of Representatives is $199,040. Ministers receive $307,329, Cabinet Ministers $336,599, the PM’s salary is $507,338, the Deputy PM gets $400,016, whilst the Opposition Leader receives an annual salary of $360,990.

However, the perks they can claim on top of their extremely generous salaries border on scandalous.

• On top of their generous pay packages, MPs receive an electorate allowance of between $32,000 and $46,000 per year to cover the costs incurred when performing official duties, but any unspent amount is treated as taxable income.
• Travel allowance for official business ranges from $273 per night for Canberra stays, to $472 for stays in Perth. The PM can claim up to $564 per night for stays away from his home or government residences.
• An official tax ruling allows ministers to claim up to $1000 per week as travel allowance, even if they stay in homes they own. On top of that, they receive deductions on all expenses for their second residence, for things such as electricity, insurance and property maintenance. Then, if they were to sell that property, it would be capital gains tax-free.
• MPs receive unlimited business class domestic flights and a car with driver for official purposes. They can also claim their own private vehicle for both work and personal use if their electorate is 10,000 square km or larger. All overseas transport, accommodation, meals and associated travel costs with ministerial and official visits, delegations and study are also at the expense of the taxpayer.
• Up to nine business class return trips to Canberra for the minister and their partner are covered, along with three trips for each child and three business class interstate trips for partners and children. Ministers on official business also receive unlimited travel for their partners.
• A minister is allowed to keep gifts from industry and private benefactors, so long as they are not worth more than $300. Gifts valued at up to $750 are allowed to be kept so long as they are from a government source. Up to $50,000 is allowed for office facilities with another $100,000 allowable for administration costs.
• As far as superannuation goes, MPs who signed up prior to 2004 receive 11.5 per cent of their salary paid into super (for up to 18 years), then 5.75 per cent after. Add to that the ‘golden handshake lump-sum payments and generous pensions based on years of service. Any politician who joined after 2004 receives 15.4 per cent of their salary paid into super for 18 years.
• Once an MP who joined Parliament before 2012 retires, they receive a Life Gold Pass for unlimited travel within Australia. Those who joined after 2012 receive severance travel allowances for up to 10 trips per year.
• MPs who retire involuntarily get a resettlement allowance of three months’ salary plus another three months if they served for more than a full term in government.
• And former PMs receive a multitude of allowances at the discretion of the current PM.

How much did your local MP spent last financial year? Choose from the drop-down menu below to find out (and, by the way, the names are not in alphabetical order but in descending order of total expenditure claimed, with the highest claim of $1,073,988 going to ex-accountant Barnaby Joyce. Congratulations, Barnaby; the Australian Society of Accountants must've coined the slogan 'Not Your Average Accountant' just for you!)

What is it with these 'Office Fit Outs'? Is there no limit on them? The first half-dozen claimants managed to spent a massive $2.3 million in just one year. Presumably, they had an office before, so this is just a top-up on previous years. And what happens to all these 'Office Fit Outs' when the MPs gets voted out? Are they passed on to the next MPs? Methinks not as that lot will have their own vision of self-aggrandizement. It reminds me of that man who had worked at a factory for twenty years. Every night when he left the plant, he would push a wheelbarrow full of straw to the guard at the gate. The guard would look through the straw, and find nothing and pass the man through. On the day of his retirement the man came to the guard as usual but without the wheelbarrow. Having become friends over the years, the guard asked him, "Charlie, I've seen you walk out of here every night for twenty years. I know you've been stealing something. Now that you're retired, tell me what it is. It's driving me crazy." Charlie simply smiled and replied, "Okay, wheelbarrows!" In the case of all these office wheelbarrows - sorry! - 'Office Fit Outs', it seems the Australian taxpayer is the 'Charlie'.

The Government preaching that we should all “live within our means” and that the “age of entitlement is over” seems rather hypocritical. Isn’t it time our politicians put our money where their snouts are?

Serving the nation? No-one is thinking what they can do for their country ... it’s all about what their country can do for them. They serve themselves first, then their party, and the nation very much last, if indeed at all.

Give us a break!

E = mc2 Einstein developed this remarkable theory: Energy = Mass x Speed of Light squared A brilliant genius as we all know. A lesser known application of Einstein's formula determined: If you were to strip naked and run around in a circle at the speed of 298 KM/sec (the speed of light) it could be possible for you to sodomize yourself! Should you determine that you are not physically capable of achieving that speed at your age, you can easily achieve the same result by voting ALP in the 2016 election. I pass this on as a community service. Hope you do too.

P.S. To get you even more excited, click here.

 

A father told his three sons when he sent them to the university, "I feel it's my duty to provide you with the best possible education. You do not owe me anything for that. However, I want you to appreciate it. As a gesture of appreciation, please each put $1,000 into my coffin when I die." And so it happened. His sons became a doctor, a lawyer and a financial planner, each very successful financially. When their father’s time had come and they saw their father in the coffin, they remembered his wish. First, it was the doctor who put ten $100 bills onto the chest of the deceased. Then came the financial planner who also placed $1,000 there. Finally, it was the heartbroken lawyer's turn. He dipped into his pocket, took out his cheque book, wrote a cheque for $3,000, put it into his father's coffin, and took the $2,000 cash. He later went on to become a politician.