. Sadly, Abbott discovered this week you can be in equal strife when you tell the truth. When he let slip that he travelled to Melbourne to attend a party fundraiser and added a visit to a cancer centre as cover for the expenses, the usual suspects rail against this outrage. It’s easy to bag politicians and our PM is as guilty as any other in bringing this wrath on himself. I would love the chance to belt him for this but if I did so I would be a hypocrite and a liar.

As a minister and a back­bencher I was always asked to speak at party fundraisers and did so whenever I could. I would always visit some groups involved in my portfolio to ensure that I could not be criticised. Pollies from both sides do this all the time and they should. The reason 97 per cent of electors vote the party ticket of their choice in the Senate is because it is easier than filling in all the boxes. It is also because political parties are a fact of life here and that is accepted. More of our senior politicians should go to party fundraisers. Labor members felt pretty free to give me the benefit of their wisdom and got stuck right into me at times. Going back to your base is never a bad thing.

You can bet your bottom dollar that all those at the cancer centre — patients, doctors, researchers, nurses, cleaners — were delighted to see the PM in their workplace. This was a place he should visit and no doubt would have done so at some point. There would be 100 or more other worthy institutes, factories, charities and think tanks for him to visit in Melbourne alone. If he does a party fundraiser on the same trip, it should not even be worth a mention.

Graham Richardson in the OZ ....

Abbott is a serial offender in regard to rorting the taxpayer purse . Obviously to be consistent with his ideology a monetary punishment should be imposed to curtail these rorts similar to a GP co payment . Fat chance of that .

Funny how ideology goes overboard when it applies to the ones spruiking it . Pyne gets free uni education but promotes higher fees via deregulation . Two years out from the next election Abbott rorts the system to attend a fund raiser for Andrews of Haneef infamy .

There should be punishment for rorting the public. Why was Slipper punished yet Abbott isn't? 

Just another leaner

Our Prime Minister admits he visited Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre so he could claim from the taxpayers his expenses for attending what was, by his own admission, a private Liberal Party fund-raising event.

Tony Abbott and his ministers preach to us daily about the necessity of living within our means. He is paid a higher salary than the President of the United States; surely the cost of a plane trip is not beyond his means.

Mr Abbott should repay the cost of this trip without delay unless, of course, he is willing to change his self-imposed title ''Captain Tony'' to ''Captain Hypocrisy''. On second thoughts, he should change it regardless. It is more representative of his and his ministers' behaviour since their election to government.

Deirdre McQueen, Eltham