We’ve all slacked off and played dumb computer games while on the clock before. It’s never okay, but I feel like it’s really not okay when my taxes pay your wage, especially when you’re literally playing SOLITAIRE in PARLIAMENT.
South Aussie Labor MP Jon Gee was spotted playing a game of FreeCell during what looks like a pretty important parliamentary budget meeting.
To make matters worse, the meeting was broadcast for all to see.
[jwplayer DubCBjNU]
Mr Gee has gone so far as to tell The Advertiser to “report on real news” after he got caught as if a politician blatantly ignoring his job isn’t newsworthy.
But clearly, Mr Gee doesn’t give two shits about the fact that taxpayers fund his salary because he didn’t seem to be paying attention to the meeting, which was about budgeting.
Police Minister Corey Wingard, who was present at the meeting, said that this was the time MPs were meant to “scrutinise the budget”. I’m no political expert, but I’m pretty sure you can’t scrutinise a budget very well if you’re engrossed in a solitaire game.
‘You’re there to do a job, you’re there to ask questions. We’ve got all the officials are there ready to take questions and it just shows he isn’t interested in what he’s doing,’ Mr Wingard said.
But it’s not just solitaire that’s more important than the budget meeting. No. Mr Gee was also captured watching tennis highlights five minutes later. Busy man.
He later told 9 News that the game “just popped up” on his screen. Ahh, yes. I too have an aggressive virus on my computer that automatically opens solitaire.
The irony of wasting taxpayer money in a meeting about budgeting said taxpayer money has not gone unnoticed by Twitter users.
And we (the taxpayers) pay the lazy sod to do his job! Just another gravy train, trough feeding sponger! 👎
— Jeff – Common ‘tator’ (@geoff_baby) July 26, 2019
And how much are we paying him to do this 🤬💰
— Gaynor White (@gw7771) July 26, 2019
I’m not sure if any other politician has played a sneaky round of Solitaire since the broadcasts started in 2017, but Mr Gee is the first to be careless enough to be caught.
We’ve all been bored out of our brains at work before. But if you’re a state politician in a budget meeting, you should probably do better. South Australians don’t ask for much, just an MP that cares enough to at least pretend to care.
