Marty_d

You're a modern Banjo Patterson! Maybe "Electric Guitar" Patterson.

Who the hell would WANT to go to the USA while this authoritarian rabble runs it?

They still have milkmaids?

We can surely walk and chew gum at the same time. Yes there will be an opportunistic pile-on by the usual suspects, but that shouldn't stop us from calling out overly generous entitlements that do not reflect what the majority of people would consider fair. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-10/pollies-charge-taxpayers-for-family-travel/106122328

I have to pull you up on that. There is no equivalence. The facts are that Trump did exhort his insurrectionists to fight and made a heap of inflammatory statements to them. All TV programs cut sections out (imagine the run time if they didn't) but in terms of changing the facts, it didn't. And the BBC, instead of apologising, should have told him to f*ck off. If Sky News and ABC were soccer teams, the ABC is getting a red card for accidentally bumping another player, while Sky News gets it for machine-gunning the opposing team.

Make the travel rules the same as for the public service. @Jerry_Atrick while there is some truth in your post, it sounds like you were working for private companies. They can waste money however they like, or at least as much as the shareholders will put up with. The government is a different beast. We can't choose to be "shareholders", our taxes pay for everything they do. A higher standard is expected and should be adhered to. While no one is arguing that cabinet ministers should travel in economy, we should ask whether the benefits of the 6 minute speech outweigh the cost - ie should the last-minute fares have been purchased at all. That trip aside, the overly generous family travel should be scrapped. Yes they have to spend a lot of time in Canberra, but any FIFO worker does the same thing and doesn't get their family flown out to visit them. As for the sporting event tickets, and any other gifts from companies - this is something that wouldn't be acceptable in the APS and shouldn't be acceptable to politicians. I'm not just picking on Wells here, there's a lot that spend more, on every side of politics. They should all remember that 99% of the people they represent get a lot less income than them.

Base salary $233,660. As a cabinet minister she gets additional 72.5%, so add $169,403. Puts her a bees dick over $400k. Are you saying that someone on $400k, who already gets her own free travel and prime seat at any sporting event she wants, can't afford to pay for her family out of her own pocket?

She might be good, but if she's so disconnected to the general population that she thinks taking kids to ski trips and sporting events on the taxpayer dime, when she gets a substantial salary herself, is a good idea, she's either out of touch or greedy.

Yeah that one doesn't pass the sniff test in a cost of living crisis. I think if Albo reads the room he should cut her loose and tell his ministers that just adherence to the letter of the rules is not enough.

One of the better Trump cartoons I've seen Nicola Jennings on Putin’s dealings with Trump over Ukraine – cartoon https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/dec/07/nicola-jennings-putin-dealings-trump-ukraine-cartoon?CMP=share_btn_url

Hopefully he thinks it's a suppository.

My wife mentioned today that her friend calls her daughter "Dodo", and said "What kind of person calls their grown daughter Dodo??" Quickly I said "Maybe their ex stinks?" Got a laugh, for once!

Yep - almost too hot Friday, got the wood heater lit today. That's Tassie for you.

F*ck him. A more useless bag of shit never drew breath.

Mini by the looks of it