Tuesday 23 April 2013

Tony Abbott's lifestyle


Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott lives at 32 Lady Davidson Circuit, Forestville, NSW.

Houses offered for sale in that street can have an asking price of $1 million plus, houses for rent sometimes cost renters close to $900 a week.

Forestville is in the Warringah local government area - which is in the "least disadvantaged" category when assessing socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.

Mr. Abbott is paid a base salary of $190,550 per annum plus allowances as a Federal Member of the House of Representatives. As Leader of the Opposition he also receives a further 85% of that base figure as additional salary. His wife works in the private sector. He has three adult daughters.

Tony and Margie Abbott would have a combined gross weekly income in excess of $7,000 dollars a week.

Despite this generous household income Mr. Abbott also expects Australian taxpayers and voters to pick up the tab for his wife and daughters and, in the first six months of 2012 they cost the nation $9,694.48:

Presumably so that the Abbott family could enjoy photo opportunities similar to this:


Again despite his comfortable income, Tony Abbott also appears quite happy to accept gifts of Max Liondos tailored suits and clothing from Les Taylor.

There seems to have been only one blip in this happy scenario. Apparently unwilling to alter his life-style after he went to the opposition benches in late 2007 as an ordinary MP, he appears to have entered into a shared equity loan arrangement - possibly in 2008 or 2009 when the Rudd Government was supporting these loans through investment by the Australian Office of Financial Management in the very financial institution listed in his mandatory declarations found in the Register of Members' Interests when he finally entered the details in mid-2010.

According to Google Earth the property snapshots below are of Mr. Abbott’s family residence, complete with pool and entertainment area.


So, the next time this privately educated son of a successful English orthodontist pulls a long face and talks about the need to reduce pensioner allowances, the advisability of forcing those under 30 off unemployment benefits, removing superannuation tax cuts for low income wage earners or that under his leadership it will be necessary for budget measures to "hurt" ordinary people – remember that he has no real idea of how ordinary people live in this country.

6 comments:

Sue said...

As my children became adults they paid board as their share of the household costs. It appears Abbott's adult children are about taking their household costs out of the public purse. And I wonder who was responsible for all the parking tickets?

Anonymous said...

Ho, ho, ho. You forgot to mention the $113,500 windfall that the Abbott's received when they sued Random House for defamation in 1999.
http://australianpolitics.com/1999/03/05/abbott-costello-ellis-defamation-action.html

anne louise said...

They'll be needing paid parental leave any time now.

Anonymous said...

$7k a week? Half of this country's households earn less than $1.5k.

d3syd said...

So what? Don't forget that Krudd and family are worth in excess of $210,000,000 through Terese Reins business. Not that there is anything at all wrong with that, good on them, but they make the Abbotts look like paupers in comparison. The tall poppy symdrome is live and well.....

Anonymous said...

The comparison and question are making reference to expense claims made despite the lack of need to do so, not how rich anyone is. Hard to miss that? Tall poppies have usually achieved something of note, not simply lied their way into a life of luxury and indifference.