Ostentatious shows of wealth a habit the Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop obviously finds hard to break

Australian Foreign Minister & Liberal MP for Curtain Julie Bishop’s wardrobe shrieks designer labels, expensive shoes and accessories. Chanel, Armani, Vuitton, Louboutin, Choo, Hand, Aujoulet, Zampatti, Gilbert – all form part of the political mannequin parade.

This year’s Midwinter Ball in Canberra was notable because someone managed to put a price tag on the evening gown. 

A whopping AUD$32,142.97 at the time of writing or, to put it another way, worth an est. 93 per cent of the annual wage before tax of an ordinary Australian full-time worker on minimum wage.

A look at some of those F*ck You gowns down the the years

Midwinter Ball 2013

Midwinter Ball 2014

Midwinter Ball 2015

Midwinter Ball 2016

Midwinter Ball 2017

Retired Members of the Australian Parliament: b#gger pensioner concessions - give us OUR travel entitlements!

The Abbott Government may have removed pensioner rebates and public transport concessions without allowing submissions from pensioner groups on the social and economic values of these concessions, but any thought that retired members of the Australian Parliament must give up Lifetime Gold travel passes without their being able to put their case was obviously not going to be entertained.

Submission to Parliamentary Entitlements Legislation Amendments Bill 2014

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.