Marty_d

I think that's his stage name. As a young aspiring actor the director asked his name, and when told "Penis Van Lesbian", said "Hmmmm - I think we need something else..."

As I see it, there are two separate and distinct issues here. First is the $100,000 / 6 minute speech thing. As I said, I don't have an issue with ministers flying first class. Whether the trip should have been taken, given the PM and someone else from government were already over there and could have filled in for her, is another matter. She delayed the trip because of the 000 issue. That's an understandable reason for not attending the event, and having another person make the speech and attend relevant meetings instead. The second, and the one I have an issue with, is unlimited first class air travel for family. Why first class? They are not the busy minister, they are not in the public eye and they have no value to government. Why not economy like everyone else? Also - you can argue that politicians spend a lot of time away from home and this is a necessary benefit. If that's true, then a) why do 62% of politicians NOT use this perk at all, and b), why is it not limited to travel to Canberra?

They'd use some kind of algorithm. Wouldn't be a human reading your posts. Probably his bum boy Elon had something whipped up for him.

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.