We’ll always maintain that, “Who is the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia?” is the simplest, but absolutely cruelest trivia question of the current political age.
Because leader of the Nationals—and yes, Deputy Prime Minister—Warren Truss is undoubtedly the Ann of Australian politics, dodging the mediascape like no other.
Does he even go here? Apparently, according to APN Media’s The Sunshine Coast Daily, who report today on an impressive one-upmanship by Truss – played against Speaker Bronwyn Bishop‘s recent #ChopperGate.
Warren Truss reportedly claimed $21,570 for a chartered flight between Canberra and Brisbane on May 14 last year, delivering a speech at Brisbane’s Conservative Breakfast Club—the worst parody of a John Hughes film there ever was—and speaking on one of last year’s most exercised buzz-phrases in Auspol, “the age of entitlement“.
Sure – while Bronwyn Bishop arguably could/should have forgone air travel altogether for her Melbourne to Geelong journey, Truss probably needed to fly the distance. Whether spending $21,000—that’s roughly SIX return fares in Qantas business class for the same journey, by the by—will draw as much heat as Bronwyn Bishop’s scandal has…? 
A spokesperson for Truss reportedly said that a chartered flight, at the time, was the Deputy PM’s only option. “No suitable commercial flights [were] available to meet Mr Truss’s ministerial duties on May 13 and 14, 2014,” they said.
Meanwhile, as more uncouth spending by Bronwyn Bishop emerges—including a travel claim to LNP colleague Sophie Mirabella‘s wedding—time to CC Truss on the memo:
So my dad has @BronwynBishop covered for all her future travel. #auspol pic.twitter.com/IIoVSOssr4
— Hugh Edgar (@thehughedgar) July 23, 2015
Via Sunshine Coast Daily.
Image via Twitter.
