Well this is interesting, the latest figures on our MP's travel also came under attack today. Ex-MP's are entitled to free flight travel after a few years in service and some had spent in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is no cap and it can be used for holidays, anything they want. Nothing at all to do with serving Australia. And all paid by the tax payers.
These ex-MP's have huge retirement benefits too.
Greens leader Bob Brown says travel taken by MPs after they have retired should only be paid for by taxpayers if it is in the public interest.
The Greens are calling for the Gold Pass travel scheme for former parliamentarians to be reviewed by an independent arbiter.
The scheme allows MPs who qualified before 1994 unrestricted domestic travel, while those who qualified after that date can take 25 return trips a year.
More than $8 million has been spent on those flights over the past seven years.
Senator Brown says there must be more restrictions on the travel entitlements.
"If it's not in the public interest and can't be shown to be in the public interest, then the travel should be paid for by the MP concerned," he said.
"They're on retirement benefits way above that of the average person in the electorate. We don't extend free holiday travel to pensioners, we shouldn't extend it to ex-MPs.
"It is not on for ex-MPs, including ex-prime ministers, to be having holidays at public expense when they are already on very generous pension or superannuation allowances."
Senator Brown does not buy into the argument that politicians deserve the travel perks because they do work that not many people in the ordinary community do.
"Politicians do get very generous travel allowances but we are talking here about retired politicians, retirees," he said.
"Now there are cases where they will be doing some things - speaking at an event or contributing to an event in the public interest. But what we are talking about here is extended holidays to Hamilton Island and elsewhere with spouses.
"That absolutely should be on the ex-politician's own expense. After all, the superannuation entitlements allow ex-ministers retirement benefits of more than $100,000 a year, and some of these travel allowances have been taken to the point where they are way, way above what a pensioner would get in total annual income and that needs to be justified."
Senator Brown says there is now a case for reviewing a system of rolling together politicians' salary and entitlements into a single, more transparent package
He says it is time for a review of the scheme and the Rudd Government must show leadership on the issue.
"I think there is a case for a general review," he said.
"Whether all ex-MPs should be on the same wicket and those who do particular travel to help charities and so on should be penalised by only having the same pool to draw from, I don't know.
"What I do know is that this should be reviewed and it is the responsibility of the Rudd Government. It is not going to come from a private member's piece of legislation, although I am very tempted to move that. It must come from a government review.
"What I will ensure is that the Greens raise this issue in the next parliamentary sittings and that we get some response from government because it is just too easy to leave it to the next year and the next round of headlines, which don't do politicians any good and they simply make many members of the public angry, with due cause.
"It would be much better from all concerned if we had a clear set of guidelines and an independent arbiter who could say 'yes, you paid for that or no, that is a legitimate travel expense which can come from the public purse'."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 … 615059.htmI hope that if your politicians do retire they aren't afforded the same benefits.
