1. Sweet Charity, full title is Sweet Charity: The Adventures of a Con Artist Who Wanted to Be Loved by Gullible Voters, is a 2013 Australian silly soap, directed, scripted and performed by Tony Abbott as himself and ... 
   
   I nearly forgot, the very disappointing part of this sad story is that the venture is underwritten and produced by a certain Mr Murdoch, himself under suspicion of having paid off some police officers with good money in Pommyland — for what i would call tits and bums news... Really, this guy is a ridiculous amateur compared to the spread of the Yankeedoodle Prism... 
   

BY NOW, we’ve all heard it.

As soon as criticism of the LNP’s policies on Indigenous Affairs (or lack thereof) are raised, the default position of LNP members, journalists and the apologists of it in action is rolled out.

Tony Abbott volunteers in Indigenous communities, so we are told.

He goes for a week a year and these statements of “fact” are usually then followed by a barrage of holier than thou tripe about how much Mr Abbott could teach the rest of us…

So sure of this position ‒ so much has it become the accepted reality ‒ that statements from the LNP and journalists come to us on this subject with gay abandon.

Take Christopher Pyne on Monday’s ABC Q&A program, for instance:

“We know that Tony Abbott works in Indigenous communities at least a week or two a year, and he has said that if he is elected Prime Minister that he will continue to do that and that he will take senior bureaucrats with him. He has done that in Cape York…”

We know this, do we? This just goes completely unchallenged and is gospel truth, is it?

Well, here is what I know:

In August 2012, Tony Abbott did indeed go to Cape York — but it wasn’t for a week or two as Mr Pyne suggests.

It was for 2 days.

It was a working bee of sorts and some of Australia’s business leaders were taken along to volunteer as well. Photos of Abbott with tools in hand were taken and the myth of Abbott the saviour of the Black man had a wonderful photo op.

No problem so far — until you examine the  Expenditure on Entitlements paid by the Department of Finance and Deregulation to Mr Abbott for this “Volunteering” trip. On page 12, we find an amount of $9,636.36 taxpayer dollars, spent to fund the hire of a private charter flight for the 2 days.

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I volunteer to hammer in a few nails for a day or two I don’t ask the people of Australia to cough up 10 grand. That isn’t volunteering — that is the most expensive labourer in the history of Australia. I wonder what the sandwiches cost?

So, was this just a once off? Nope. Not on your life!

On another one of his trips to an Indigenous Community in 2010, Mr Abbott was off to sell his version of the Wild Rivers Legislation to the traditional owners it would impact. Not quite volunteering, as such — but policy is good and spending time in Indigenous communities is to be encouraged if it results in consultation that means that locals get their message across, resulting in positive policy changes.

So, just how much did Mr Abbott listen to the local people of the Indigenous community he visited? How much was this reflected in his policy? Because hey, we know ‒ or are told ‒ he has the ear of the Black man…

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-abbotts-costly-indigenous-community-volunteering/

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended charging taxpayers for his travel expenses to participate in sporting events and lead the Pollie Pedal charity bike ride.

Mr Abbott and some of his frontbenchers have recently repaid travel claims they made to attend the weddings of politicians and media figures.

Department of Finance documents also show Mr Abbott claimed $349 in travel allowance and $941 for flights to compete in an ironman event in the New South Wales city of Port Macquarie in 2011.

"I believe that all of my claims have been within entitlement," he told the media on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bali.

"Let's not forget that Port Macquarie was a marginal seat effectively and I want to assure you that I don't go to marginal seats simply for sporting events, although the sporting event in question was a community event.

"I think you'll find there were quite a few other community events involved in those visits."

And he says the annual pollie pedal ride is a "perfectly legitimate" travel expense.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-08/abbott-denies-taking-taxpayers-for-ride-over-pollie-pedal/5008456

Charity is easy when you make someone else pay for your donation...

See toon and story at top and also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/27257

The Abbott government has backed away from distributing millions of dollars in grants promised to dozens of charities, community groups and local councils under Labor's national crime prevention program.

In some cases, small charities say their existence is under threat because they have spent money based on draft funding agreements that will no longer be honoured by the new government.

The biggest loser is the Police Citizens Youth Club, which has been warned the $7 million it was promised is ''on hold and unlikely to be delivered'', according to an insider.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/hit-and-run-on-crime-prevention-likely-20131012-2vf25.html#ixzz2hXsclZL3

An appeal by former federal parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper against a conviction for misusing his Cabcharge allowance has heard it is not a case where he should have been allowed to simply pay back the money.

Slipper was found guilty of three dishonesty charges in July for misusing his Cabcharge allowance in 2010 to visit Canberra wineries and then filling out multiple vouchers to hide the fact.

In September Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker ordered Slipper to complete 300 hours of community service, handed him a two-year good behaviour bond and told him he must pay back $954.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-18/peter-slipper-cabcharge-case-paying-back-cabcharge-money/5975822

What's allowed for the Abbott going to wedding of his mates should be allowed to a Slipper visiting wineries... Abbott repaid the moneys in the thousands, Slipper should be able to do so as well... though Slipper's mistake was to try and hide by splitting vouchers... Abbott does not try to hide his rorts...  He pedals for charitable causes and goes to aboriginal communities which is commendable but charges the commonwealth for the expenses — which is a rort. Tony even get the public purse to pay for his book promotional tours... Rotten to the core....