Opinion: Politicians living in parallel universe with it comes to parliamentary entitlements

OPINION: Politicians have convinced themselves that their jobs are so onerous they deserve more than the Average Joe. Look at the parliamentary calendar and you might disagree. There are tougher jobs, that are just as tough on families.

It is apparent that former health minister Sussan Ley and the reasonable person don’t fly in the same aircraft, let alone sit in the same cabin classes.

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JOURNALISTS ply their trade with the reasonable person looking over their shoulders.

Mr or Mrs Reasonable is the average citizen who is seen to represent community standards on matters of fairness and good sense.

It is apparent that our politicians long ago parted company with the reasonable person, particularly when it comes to standards relating to the public purse.

The arrogance of now thumb-twiddling former health minister Sussan Ley doesn’t really bear revisiting – although it becomes more grotesque by the day – but it is apparent that she and the reasonable person don’t fly in the same aircraft, let alone sit in the same cabin classes.

She is now subject to a double-pronged inquiry by the Prime Minister’s office and the Department of Finance and will either have her wings permanently clipped or be relaunched into the rarefied air of parliamentary entitlements.

But the public knows, and every politician from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull down knows, it will be only be a matter of time before another minister, opposition worthy, or backbench grafter will be caught making hay while the parliamentary sun shines.

And ongoing revelations suggest that time is now.

So why has it taken so long for our politicians to spare themselves the pain by winding back a system that is manifestly rotten to the core?

Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer has belatedly pledged to fix the system. But reform has been on the backburner for a year and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann’s bleat of “too busy, too busy” just doesn’t cut it.

While politicians seize on transgressions for momentary advantage, there doesn’t seem to be any great appetite for reform on either side.

To read the list of parliamentary entitlements is an exercise in masochism but most of the problems seem to revolve around two issues.

One is the absence of any definition of what constitutes parliamentary business, the vessel on which most pirates set sail on their voyages of plunder.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann’s bleat of “too busy, too busy” just doesn’t cut it. Picture: AAP

The fact is that parliamentary business is whatever a politician says it is and it remains so until public anger becomes unbearable.

A 2010 review of entitlements noted that politicians have two roles: The ongoing demands of their electorate and their “many, increasingly diverse and consuming responsibilities to the Parliament’’.

“Demands of the electorate” presumably include the glad-handing that is part of the never-ending election cycle.

Not mentioned was their chosen third role of schmoozing with friends and donors, preening at major events, attending fundraisers and tribal functions such as weddings, cycling marathons and spurious charity events.

O’Dwyer says defining parliamentary business is one of her priorities although it might be simpler to define just what isn’t parliamentary business.

The public would be delighted to help in her deliberations.

The other problem is that politicians have managed to convince themselves, the Remuneration Tribunal and successive reviews of entitlements that their duties are so onerous they deserve recompense beyond the wildest dreams of ordinary citizens.

“The parliamentarian’s role is unlike that of any other member of the community,’’ said a 2015 report which went on to mention “long hours, significant time away from family and friends, and extensive travel’’.

A simple soul might look at the not very demanding parliamentary calendar (no Friday or weekend sittings) and conclude that there are tougher jobs that make similar demands on family.

“Some travel involved’’ is a reasonable caution for those who hear the call of political life.

A simple soul might think that generous salaries and allowances might be sufficient compensation for being wrenched from hearth and home. But no. Lonely politicians have managed to create a system that is little more than a publicly-funded holiday scheme.

In what parallel universe is it reasonable for taxpayers to pick up the tab so politicians can take their partners on jollies of dubious worth?

And who decided it was reasonable that families be jetted around the nation in business class in the name of “family reunion’’?

There are plenty of people who probably see less of their families than politicians do.

And the irony is that while the benefits of trickle-down economics are being serially debunked, trickle-down benefits are working a treat.

Mr or Mrs Reasonable would be horrified to see how such indulgence seeps through the system because the determinations of the remuneration tribunal tend to be the benchmark for legions of parliamentary and governmental officers, judges and other poobahs at both federal and state levels.

If this system of entitlements isn’t open to perusal by Mr and Mrs Reasonable and subject to the same diligence under which ordinary citizens labour, trust in our parliamentary system will die the death of a thousand rorts.

Ours could be the first democracy destroyed not by enemies without or traitors within but by the naked greed of those that we entrust to preserve it.

Email Terry Sweetman