Peter Slipper, what a man! What a politician!
"Oops! I accidentally claimed more than I should have. I'll pay it all back, honest! (at least I'll pay back the fraudulent claims that they know of)"...this is totalling $14,000 so far.
$640,000 worth of expenses for the 6 months to the end of 2009!!! How on earth could a person - any person - have that many expenses? 16 grand worth of taxi fares! In 6 months!! And this is on top of both his chauffeur driven car, and regular Government vehicles.
'Ridiculous' is a word that springs to mind. So is the phrase "I'm shafting every single person in my electorate...and laughing at them at the same time". I suppose he's enjoying his subscriptions to Australian Aquarium Keeper, Men's Fitness, Sportdiving, Vogue, Wealth Creator, Nature and Health, Gourmet Traveller, Organic Gardener,Harper's Bazaar and Australian Traveller. Enjoying them a lot. Maybe he fell asleep in Parliament because he's been working out, diving, gardening, and travelling a bit too much??? I suppose, being taxied and chauffeured around so much really takes it out of you.
For an electorate where the average person doesn't earn much more than $40,000/year, it would take Joe Smith on the Sunshine Coast around about 8 years just to earn the money Peter Slipper has spent on expenses during that 6 month period. Take tax out of their earnings...make it 10 years. 'Scandalous' is a word that now comes to mind.
Add to this the fact that he allowed his teenage son to drive his Government supplied (Canberra) vehicle while at school in Sydney, surely you've got to start thinking that something isn't right?
I'll go on. In the 6 month period mentioned above, it cost more than $525,000 to run his electoral office, his mobile phone bill was just under $15,000, and his 27-day "study tour" to South America cost more than $15,500.
Having said all of this, it can be argued that being the elected representative of an area as big as Fisher requires a lot of work. There's lots of people to represent. Lots of opinions to think about. Lots of regional matters to raise with on the biggest stage that there is - the Australian Parliament. That probably explains why it took him nearly 2 years after being elected to give his first speech in That Big House. Then again, some people probably say he was asleep for those 2 years.
Oh, I almost forgot. Peter Slipper was asked to pay back more than $7,700 in claims in 2003, and more than $2,800 in 2007 - in addition to the above.
As well as being a politician, he's also trained as a lawyer and a man of the cloth. Would it be naive of me to think that a priest, lawyer, and politician should have more morals than Slipper does???
People of Fisher; you either think this kind of stuff is acceptable, or the majority of you are stupid. Party politics aside, pull your finger out and get rid of this guy...it's not just your money that he's virtually pissing up against a wall. It's mine as well.
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