New Speaker Peter Slipper under expenses scrutiny (Adelaide Now)
"THE Liberal turncoat who accepted Julia Gillard's support to become Parliament's Speaker is being investigated over his "extraordinary" spending on taxpayer-funded travel. .....The Queensland MP, who has been forced to pay back more than $20,000 in wrongly claimed entitlements, also embarked on a lavish six-week study tour in March. With his wife Inge, he spent an estimated $25,000-plus visiting European travel hotspots, including Spain, Germany and the UK, to examine "bilateral relationship" with Australia. Mr Slipper, whose behaviour was detailed in a confidential file held in the office of ex-prime minister John Howard, has regularly spent close to $200 of tax money on individual taxi fares. .....Mr Slipper's generous use of entitlements often during non-sitting periods of Parliament has provoked fury among local constituents, who signed a petition calling for a full audit. This was tabled in Parliament in September."
---------------------------
FOREIGN Minister Kevin Rudd has declined to answer questions about new Speaker Peter Slipper. (Herald Sun)
"He also declined to refute Queensland LNP president Bruce McIver's assertion that Mr Rudd stitched up the Speaker deal when he visited Mr Slipper in his Sunshine Coast electorate last week."
----------------------------
A house of ill repute (The Australian)
"Slipper's career has been punctuated by scandal, allegations of parliamentary allowance misuses and simple stupidity. From high-spending travel entitlements to party defections between the Nationals and the Liberals to finding himself locked in a disabled toilet calling for assistance because he thought the sliding door only had push and pull functionality, Slipper is hardly a model MP."
-----------------------------
Gillard may have slipped with Slipper (Andrew Bolt,Herald Sun)
"A very good and fair speaker in Harry Jenkins has been replaced by a man of very dubious reputation who has also betrayed his electorate’s wishes. It looks like a grubby deal with a grubby man to help a grubby government cling to power. It makes the independents propping up Gillard look a bit grubbiier, too, having to go along with this. "
------------------------------
The man the Liberals wanted to sack, but Labor made Speaker
No comments:
Post a Comment