Political journos are rediscovering their investigative skills and have been scouring through politicians’ past travel expenses.
In the Canberra press gallery, sporting expenses are the new black. And surprise surprise, politicians are invited to, and attend, sporting events and claim it back on expenses.
This has always happened, will continue to happen, and while some of you will disagree, should happen.
Being a politician is an unusual vocation choice. One of the attractions is the variety of the working day and that is what is being missed in this debate around claiming expenses for sporting events.
A footy game, attending the races or watching the netball can all be condensed into about three or four hours.
For the footy (either AFL or NRL), a corporate function including lunch will usually start a couple of hours before the game, involving key speakers and some kind of presentation.
As a politician, you put on a suit, you have a speech pre-prepared and you sit at the head table. Who is at the table and whether or not you’ve met them before will be how you decide if you have a beer.
Over the four hours you will most likely receive two dozen emails and your advisor will try and get you to speak to a journo/key stakeholder at some point during or after the game.
You’ll get to watch a bit of the first half but most likely will be sitting next to someone that wants something (funding, a meeting, etc) and if they are not asking you now they are mentally working on how to do it.
Half-time you you go inside, partake in the half-time presentation and then speak to that person, who has finally figured out how they are going to ask you for what they want.
You miss the start of the second half, however that doesn’t matter – the football in this case is only the background entertainment.
The reason you’ve been invited is not to see the game, but to see how impressive the game and people that run it are. When it comes to signing the bottom line for funding in the future, the sport hopes you’ll remember the great day you had at the match.
After the game, the day goes on – usually another meeting or event for a different part of their portfolio or the portfolio they are representing.
A far less regular occurrence is politicians claiming expenses for participating in sporting events. The most obvious being PM Abbott claiming after competing in the Port Macquarie Iron Man.
Like attending sporting events, either side of participating will involve more meetings, more media and more speeches.
Chances are, unlike other non-elite participants, you’ll get filmed during the race and if you were to crash, get a flat or hit the wall it would be reported. Your pain-face will be on a front page somewhere and filed away for future use by journos.
Being a public figure goes hand in hand with being a politician and scrutiny is to be expected, but just as we claim back on work-related expenses, so too do our politicians.
To some it may not appear to be work, but it is and politicians will – or should – admit that sporting events are often the highlight of their working day and a great perk of the job.
Expenses should always be questioned and repaid where incorrect. But I would rather my politicians be travelling the country attending and engaging in sporting events than sitting in their office in Canberra telling me to do 30 minutes of exercise a day while they Google “lap band surgery”.
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