Travel expenses claim shows Joe Hockey has NO idea

Could our treasurer be any more out of touch with the average Australian? Fresh after insulting first homeowners about their choice of job and subsequent lack of ability to secure a home-loan in Australia’s spiralling house market, new reports show Joe Hockey claims more in travel expenses that he expects a job-seekers to live on.

And it doesn’t stop there: the “reimbursed” taxpayer dollars go to Mr Hockey’s wife as rent!

News Limited newspapers this morning are reporting that Mr Hockey has claimed an average of $1000 each month since 1998, despite the fact he always stays at a house owned by his wife.

In total, the Treasurer has paid $184,000 towards a home that cost his wife $320,000. It was an astute purchase, which has risen in value to $2 million. No wonder Joe Hockey thinks the property market is a doddle.

“The house was a piece of Hockey mercantile genius,” former Liberal MP Ross Cameron told biographer Madonna King.

And perhaps what he meant by advising first home-owners to get a well-paid job was to get one in which your travel expenses were paid, no questions asked?

Travel allowance rules state, Mr Hockey is allowed to claim $271 per night when he stays in Canberra. This allowance covers the cost of accommodation regardless of whether he stays in a hotel (the QT looks nice at $160 per night, Mr Hockey) his own property or a friend’s home.

When asked if his $271 poer night travel allowance had helped pay off the mortgage, Mr Hockey told Q&A: “I don’t know, I pay rent”.

“You are living away from home and employers pay that,” he said.“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”.

Mr Hockey’s $1000 per month in allowances is roughly the equivalent of the Newstart allowance for jobseekers and 30 per cent of a single person’s pension.

We think this is further evidence that Joe Hockey is out of touch with how real Australian’s live. Tell us what you think.

Does our treasurer need a good dose of reality?