Taxpayers spending $3,000 a week to rent home Tony Abbott rejected

Mr Abbott has been staying at the Australian Federal Police training headquarters while The Lodge undergoes major repairs.

It has emerged the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet signed a 12-month lease on a house in August, during the caretaker period. ABC

End Labor waste

But Liberal waste is fine

Yesterday, WA-based ministers, backbenchers, spouses and their children flew out of Perth bound for Canberra on one of the Government's 737 Boeing business jets.

The West Australian newspaper has reported that the fuel costs alone for the VIP flight will be more than $30,000. Abc

Abbott tells MPs to kick family members off payroll

TONY Abbott's "sack your family" edict to MPs who double dip and employ family members has sparked warnings some will defy the order.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald Sun, the Prime Minister insisted he would not allow the new Parliament to descend into "a circus" and wanted to clean up the entitlements rules before ushering in a more "courteous, respectful'' approach. News

Abbott Government: Week 5 in review

What new ways has Tony found to ruin Australia this week?

• Government at odds with IMF over carbon pricing
• Number of women on opposition front bench is 11x greater than on Tony's
• George Brandis' $13,000 bookshelf is too big to fit in his office
• Tony releases carbon repeal bill, urges Labor to 'repent' on carbon
• Govt floats the idea of flogging off the HECS debt
• Backbencher Don Randall buys an investment house, like everyone else in Australia.
• The cops are called over expenses. They decline to probe further
• Billionaire Twiggy Forest gets offered a job heading a review into Indigenous employment.
• Abbott revokes clean energy grants, saying 'you didn't say no takebacks'
• Temporary Protection Visas return 
• Tony Abbott proposes digging up the dead, reburying them in Canberra

A little quieter than previous weeks, sure, its tough work being Tory.

Update: police not probing Abbott, Brandis

thanks for that headline, Courier Mail

Federal Police called over expenses

A federal Labor MP has formally asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate the travel claims of the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General "as a matter of urgency". ABC

Scraping around the bottom of the backbench barrel

Another Liberal expenses fiddler: Don Randall checks out an investment home in Cairns on the taxpayer dollar ABC

George Brandises library

His $13000 bookshelf is too big to move into his new office. Fairfax

Abbott Government: Week 4 in review

A relatively quiet second  half of the week as Abbott seeks to consolidate progress made on ruining Australia.

• In the wake of rortgate, Abbott rules out reform on MP expenses
• Tony and Mal Brough take home the silverware at the Ernies
• Clive Palmer thinks he has Abbott on the ropes, legislatively speaking
• Abbott speaks of his desire for three Free Trade Agreements in 12 months. And a pony.
• Scott Morrison takes a break from hoping people don't notice any boats to hoping people won't notice he paid back expenses.
• Soon afterwards the Coalition claimed GREAT SUCCESS as only one boat arrived this week.
• Scott also convinced some asylum seekers that the Coalition has made Australia so terrible, they went back where they came from.
• Everyone loves a good expenses scandal, even the Poms.
• George "I'm a QC you know" Brandis confirms the Government feels threatened by gay marriage and will challenge the ACT's prospective laws.

View from abroad: Torygraph

Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister, has defended his use of tens of thousands of dollars of parliamentary expenses to attend weddings and sporting events, saying MPs should not be “prisoners of their offices”. Tele UK

Scott Morrison caught in expenses gate

He's repaid them.

Abbott rules out reform of MP expenses

Under pressure to explain why taxpayers should spend thousands of dollars to help politicians compete in sports events and attend colleagues' weddings, Mr Abbott said there would “always be arguments at the margins” and changing the rules would achieve nothing.
“I'm not proposing to change the system,” Mr Abbott said on Thursday.
Advertisement“You don't want members of Parliament to be prisoners of their offices.” Fairfax

Midweek roundup: Week 4

I don't know whether the expenses scandal counts as a scandal since the info's been out there for years, but w/e here we go with the week's scores and highlights

• Barnaby says Gina bought him cheaply, saving taxpayers money.
• Defence Minister D. Johnston defends censored report, because you can't handle the truth, or national security or something.
• Tony Abbott's excited about consummation with China.
• Scott Morrison proposes a new plan: lock innocent people up for being innocent, and when they get out, lock them up again because there's a 0.13 percent chance they could commit be charged with a crime.
• Tony Abbott does a Barbra Streisand by trying to repay Slipper wedding expenses on the sly.
• And some claimed for an iron man thing.
• The ABC gets on the bandwagon, revealing that ' Mr Abbott has claimed thousands of dollars to take part in various sporting events in recent years.' 
• Abbott prostrates himself* before Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in an act of contrition.
• Victims of terrorism get compo, and it's not at all because they are middle class white people.
• Abbott cries crocodile tears over the time he was in Bali enjoying a holiday with his family, and then it was ruined. By terrorists.
• Abbott proclaims to everyone in Asia that Japan is Australia's BFF, so everyone else back off okay.

*: may or may not have actually occurred

Expenses scandal claims ironman

Abbott's paid back a bit more money.

Tony Abbott quietly repays expenses for Slipper wedding

Not much to add. Australian

Barnaby defends wedding trip

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce says the fact that mining magnate Gina Rinehart paid for him to fly to a wedding in India helped make the trip cheaper for taxpayers. ABC

Weddings expenses cause headaches

Barnaby Joyce, Julie Bishop and Teresa Gambaro collectively claimed more than $12,000 in ''overseas study'' allowances to pay for their flights

Tony Abbott repays expenses after charging taxpayers to attend Sophie Mirabella's wedding

If in doubt, don't claim expenses, Malcolm Turnbull tells colleagues