Politicians and the people: a fundamental disconnect

THEY hunt down “welfare cheats” while flying their families business class on our cash. We see the hypocrisy, but they don’t.

THE sustained outrage over MPs’ spending has crowbarred an even wider disconnect between the public and politicians.

The gap was more obvious today as it became clear Parliament will return next week with the gravest matters of public confidence and trust hanging over all parties.

The galling perception within the electorate is worse than MPs simply telling voters to do one thing while they to do the another. It’s the routine nature of their excesses. The bills for weddings, concerts, sporting events seem to be sent to taxpayers automatically.

Revelations started by Bronwyn Bishop’s reckless use of taxpayer funds, including a “ridiculous” $5000 helicopter ride, have been “a slap in the face” to voters, according to one concerned MP.

And attempts at defence based on arguments the spending was within the rules set by politicians are not working.

Then there is perception of double standards.

The hunt is on for “welfare cheats”, encouraged by politicians who fly their families business class with — to many voters — the scantiest of justifications.

Fur-real, it took dumped Speaker Bronwyn Bishop a fortnight to realise a $5000 chopper ride along a perfectly good freeway was, in her own words, “ridiculous”.

The end of entitlement was declared by men and women who charged the taxpayer for flying across the country to visit their real estate holdings or to watch a football match.

Today, Labor frontbencher Tony Burke, the chief Opposition prosecutor of former Speaker Mrs Bishop, has been embarrassed by revelations that as a minister he spend $225,000 on overseas travel, including first class tickets, in 2008-09 — the years when Australians were warned of

a world recession.

Incredibly, Education Minister Christopher Pyne today appeared to defend his opponent against “pot shots”.

“All the stories about Tony Burke, so far none of them have been in breach of the rules. If the rules are the rules and people stay within them you can’t then criticism them,” Mr Pyne told the Nine network.

The political class — including political reporters and commentators — is already struggling to deal with a sense of betrayal within the public.

Labor’s Tony Burke. He spent $225,000 on overseas travel, including first class tickets, as the GFC raged.

There is electoral contempt already over rash promises broken with barely a backward look, and clumsy decision processes which would not be tolerated at most people’s workplaces.

Independent MP Cathy McGowan said voter reaction was this: “Stop it. This isn’t about rules. It’s about integrity, this is about our trust.”

“I think that’s exactly the attitude that really annoys people because we want from our politicians a sense of what’s right and proper and what’s good for the community,” she said.

Ms McGowan today told Radio National she had surveyed her voters on the spending issue

“There is an enormous sense of dislocation the sense that what happens in politics has missed what’s happening in ordinary people’s lives,” she said.

“So on one hand government’s been cutting services ... So for them to see how politicians are spending their money has been such a slap in the face.”

The uproar over MPs’ spending has compounded that contempt and provided a quantifiable focus of outrage.

Ms McGowan, who took Indi from Liberal minister Sophie Mirabella in 2013, warned MPs voters saw them looking after themselves and not their electorates.

With taxpayers footing the bill, the five-star Grand Hotel Plaza in Rome seemed suddenly affordable to Mrs Bishop during a 2014 work trip.

She said: “So when you get that sort of disconnect people are saying, Well what’s really going on? And (there is a) sense that, What power do we as a community have?”

The post-Bishop truce between the Coalition and the ALP on travel expense claims which The Australian today calculated cost taxpayers 35.4 million last year is aimed at halting tit-for-tat accusations which would damage both sides.

“I don’t see any great benefit of having a running commentary on MPs’ entitlements,” said Mr Pyne.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has declined comment until a review of expenses he ordered Sunday is completed in a few months.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, who refuses to fly first class even when offered free upgrades by airlines, today said it was a matter of common sense and judgment for all MPs.

In between claiming taxpayer money to live in a house his wife already owns, Treasurer Joe Hockey encourages hunting down welfare cheats. For instance, working mums.

Originally published as Politicians and the people: a fundamental disconnect