Transcript from ABC's Q&A: does this sounds like & smells like rorting the system....
MARK TRAVERS: There has been a lot of talk recently about double-dipping. As Treasurer, do you believe that politicians receiving an away-from-home allowance of $270 per night to stay in a house owned by their spouse is double-dipping?
JOE HOCKEY: Well, no, because ultimately you have to pay for the rent or you have to pay for the hotel accommodation, whatever the case is. You are living away from home and employers pay that.
TONY JONES: Yeah. I mean, you better clear this one up for us because obviously we went and looked. We heard this question and we went and looked in the Daily Telegraph and they had a whole story about you living in a house that your wife owns, and I think your father and you pay...
JOE HOCKEY: I don't think he still owns it.
TONY JONES: Well, the figures they had was you’d already claimed up to $100,000 or more than $100,000 in allowances relating to that. Did that actually go into the mortgage?
JOE HOCKEY: Well, Tony, I don't know. I pay rent and, you know, if it’s...
TONY JONES: Well, you pay rent to your wife?
JOE HOCKEY: Well, hang on, well, is there a problem with that?
TONY JONES: I'm asking you.
JOE HOCKEY: No, well, you’re asking – you’re making the point. Is there a problem with that? Because I would be paying rent to some other person as well. I can pay rent to you. I would pay hotel rooms or room fees, Tony. What would you like?
TONY JONES: I suppose the question that’s raised here is whether people all over the country struggling to buy a home would find it acceptable that politicians get a taxpayer-funded subsidy for buying a house?
JOE HOCKEY: Well, hang on, it’s not a taxpayer-funded subsidy, because we actually have to rent. So politicians that go to Canberra, they live in their electorates, and if they go to Canberra, they have to pay rent or they go to a hotel room, Tony. I don't know, does the ABC do that when you travel?
TONY JONES: They do but the hotel is not owned by my wife. Let’s go back to the questioner and see what he thinks. He raised it. We looked it up and we found some details. Go back to him.
RAY FAVETTI: Yeah, I just get the impression that, you know, it’s a different rule in Canberra and it looks like the age of entitlement hasn't ended there.
JOE HOCKEY: Well, I'm sorry you feel that way but it’s not – I mean it applies for all politicians. It applies for public servants that travel away. Whoever goes away on business has to pay hotel room fees or rental accommodation, whatever the case. I'm sorry you feel that way and it’s been a common practice on all sides of politics because ultimately most people want to have the same place over a number of years where they can leave their toothbrush at night. That's what you want instead of a hotel room or whatever the case or renting different accommodation as people do. You know, you’re away - I think I was away 185 days last year and you try and have the same bed and you try and have the same place to leave a shirt.
...all this while property investors are required to have arms-length tenants to claim tax concessions, some inequity here, and of course the politicians have their snouts firmly in the trough.....
