Tony Abbott practicing for the triathlon inside parliament.

I too loathe Abbott, it depresses me that the people of this country were stupid enough to vote him in (or as many excuse it, by voting Labor out at the unfortunate expense of voting Abbott in despite when I query them further about specifics they almost always concede that a good job was in actual fact done by Labor).

BUT …

… I just don’t get the current drama on Twitter etc about Abbott’s expense claims. A large part of a politicians job is in fact personal PR, so when they’re doing what is in actual fact their job, why should they have to pay for it out of their own pocket?

So he went to a triathlon. That is still personal promotion, public relations, and therefore part of his work. It just happens to be a fun part. Driving a truck from Brisbane to Sydney – will you try to tell me this was for his own laugh, or will you concede it was all part of a PR stunt?  If it’s a PR stunt, that’s PR, that’s part of his job, so why should he pay for it out of his own pocket?

And they push the boundaries sometimes. So what? Who doesn’t? I work in IT, when ever I buy computers I claim them on tax even if they’re personal ones. 99.99% of what I do on them is play, but I put in at least 5 hours a week of work on them so that’ll do me. I used to claim my ‘net connection, but they cracked down on that. I could probably claim my mobile phone, too. But who doesn’t push the boundaries of what they can’t claim as tax?

Who here has never been down to the pub with workmates on a Friday and not had it claimed as a “team building” expense? That’s more of a rort than most of the things people are up in arms about for the pollies.

Get over it people, find some real targets. What’s going on now, these expenses, it’s a non-event. You’re just wasting your own time and energy.