It was not a good start to 2017 for the current Australian government. Amidst the Centrelink automated debt collection saga that incorrectly targeting people using flawed algorithms, the Sussan Ley’s Gold Coast property scandal that unravelled other MP’s luxury lifestyles paid by tax payers did not sit well with the Australian public. Bronwyn Bishop, now notorious for using tax payer money for chartered helicopter flights to functions while they can easily be reached by car blamed this as Socialist attacks. This further reflects how these groups of self-entitled self-centred politicians just did not get it, and they are the reasons for the rise of the alt-sectors of politics including the One Nation in this country.
Without being too socialist, let me break this down in a more common sense term. The argument itself is about what constituted official business. A number of MPs claimed that if they are invited to private events because of who they are, they can claim. The grey area is “who they are”, but then if we look into this further, it is not about who they are but “what kind of business was conducted”. Of course you can said you talked about “ministerial businesses” but then the question are what are they? Who knows? And were they recorded? The fact that these MPs claimed their rights to tax payer money simply because of “Who they are” reflects the megalomaniac culture and ego of these groups of people. If you strictly look at this from a business governance point of view, it is not about a pub test but a series of well-defined criteria that should govern these activities. Simply put, if they are on official businesses, they should at least meet the following straightforward criteria:
In what aspect of their current portfolio are these businesses related to?
Why would the MPs meet with these groups of people to discuss about these businesses in relation to their portfolio?
What were discussed at these functions and events?
Were these discussions recorded and reported back to the Parliament in any record management compliant manner?
Where these discussions available for the public aka the tax payers to review?
These are just basic processes that any reasonable governing body should have regarding official businesses and it is just borderline ridiculous that these MPs or even our so called Government, the highest governing body in this country, could not comprehend and follow. Many a time we heard these MPs said they checked with so and so about it and he said, or she said or the office said it is ok. But the fact is what did they tell them and what were they checking against?
Some MPs argued that they cannot disclose certain discussions because they are not mature enough and / or command business confidentiality. The fact is if you are charging tax payers for your “business” it is your responsibility to disclose these “businesses”. People who paid for you have the rights to know. It is not within your personal judgement to not disclose. The only thing you can argue about non-disclosure is when it involves national security or intelligence agencies, which I doubt there would be a lot of portfolios in the Parliament that need to deal with.
Of course the Government made itself even look worse when it claims they are trying to crackdown free loaders in the society with the Centrelink debacle while at the same time they displayed free loading behaviours themselves and trying to justify their luxurious public funded lifestyles.
The bottom line is how can one justify trying to “save the budget” with cuts in health care, education and infrastructure while at the same time the same group of people are spending so much public money that they claimed they are entitled to? Would the public really believe that the generation of entitlement are out in the wild and not within the walls of the Parliament? This is not about individual MPs behaviour but that whole group of people collectively. It is more than just about setting up an anti-corruption agency but have strictly implemented and followed guidelines for these spending that you don’t need to justify but simply report on. If not these so called MPs are no different to those free loaders they are trying to crack down in the society during this Centrelink debacle. But would they ever learn? God knows.
