There’s something delicious about spending other people’s money during a financial crisis – at least, that is the only logical conclusion the Australian public can come to as Albanese and his Labor mates burn through taxpayer cash on self-promotion and cocktails.
The Prime Minister seized power on a promise that he would cut power bills by $275.
‘I will cut power bills for families and businesses by $275 a year for homes by 2025, compared to today!’ said Albanese, in a ‘vow’ that has since been removed from the party’s official website leaving nothing but a sad ‘404 error message’ in its place. Modelling puts the reality at a 47 per cent increase to energy bills by 2025.
It won’t be long before the rest of Australia’s economy winds up as an error message if Labor keeps wasting money on itself.
Not only has the Prime Minister spent more time aloft than Charlie Sheen, his team has no shame using money (that Australia’s mums and dads earned) on self-congratulatory ‘meet and greets’ in excess of $150,000 in three months.
Tony Burke was one of the worst offenders against common decency, spending nearly $40,000 on 14 town hall events held so that he could introduce himself to the arts industry and ‘cultural sector’.
Also guilty of taunting the working class is the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry Murray Watt with a $40,000 conference; Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland and her $13,000+ reception; Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler and his $16,000+ for an event to welcome doctors and medical professionals (presumably only those who obeyed vaccine mandates); and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who spent $29,000+ on ‘welcoming stakeholders’ and $6,735 on a ‘networking’ cocktail party.
To pay for this wasteful and tasteless behaviour, ordinary Australians have nearly every part of their lives heavily taxed for ‘the greater good’ with no relief coming for inflation, fuel prices, energy, or food.
As Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash put it, ‘It looks like the Albanese government is living it up in the best traditions of Labor governments, going all the way back to the Whitlam era. The government talks a big game about being sound economic managers, but this type of spending on cocktail parties, functions, and conferences exposes what they are really like.’
Has Labor done anything illegal? No. But had former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Liberal Party been topping up their champagne flutes while families choose between energy and food, the public broadcaster would have unleashed a relentless campaign to shame them out of office.
The government furnishes itself with wealth that it did not earn. As such, it has a responsibility to spend public money wisely – never more so than when the people of Australia are suffering.
If Albanese feels that he has $150,000 going spare, he should have offered the public a tax cut.
As usual, Labor panders to the poor in the lead-up to election and then gorges itself on power – rewarding those who least deserve it with money taken from those who can least afford it.
