John Howard was always the master of ‘middle-class welfare’, as evidenced by the questionable increases in the eligibility for the Aged Pension, baby bonuses, family tax benefits, and superannuation concessions under his watch.
Now it has been revealed by the Huffington Post that John Howard has claimed far more taxpayer expenses than Australia’s other living former Prime Ministers:
Former PMs are given “a number of facilities at the discretion of the prime minister of the day” and currently include car costs, office costs, telecommunications and travel costs…
In the latest disclosure of expenditure on the Department of Finance website (for the period from January to June 2016), it is revealed Howard, the second-longest serving PM, was the biggest spender among former leaders. Howard billed $152,970 in the six-month period, the bulk of which came from $112,434 in office facilities, nearly double that of the next highest amount in the same category (Rudd, on $63,210).
Howard’s expenses have consistently remained far higher than other former PMs in recent reporting periods…
Howard has claimed the most amount among the ex-PMs in six of the last seven disclosure periods…
Looking back further to expenses from the start of 2013, Howard alone racked up more than one million dollars in claims… The next highest amount is Julia Gillard, on $807,000, but $408,304 of that came from one single expense, an office fit out in 2014. Next on the list is Hawke with $566,000.
As a long time MPs and former Prime Ministers, the above retired leaders would already be receiving massive parliamentary pensions. So the obvious question arises: why are they charging taxpayers such outlandish costs? And why should they not also share in the burden of balancing the Budget?
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
