Sadly, the latest pigs-in-a-trough moment from Parliament House is well past “wait, what” and firmly into “seriously” territory.

We’re little more than a week into 2017 and to rot is already showing in Canberra.

Health Minister Sussan Ley has stood aside after questions were raised about her claims of taxpayer-funded travel entitlements for trips to the Gold Coast, where she bought a $795,000 investment property “on a whim”.

I made a purchase on a whim this week. It was a dress that is eminently suitable for work and it cost $70.

As impulse buys go, $70 is about as far as I’d comfortably go.Spending $795,000 on a  property? Tell ‘em they’re dreaming.

As usual, our politicians have adopted their well-worn stances.

The opposition is blaming the government, the government is promising action on a long-ignored report on political entitlements and the cross-bench is taking full advantage of voters’ disgust to pull more people away from the traditional parties.

Predictably, Acting Special Minister of State Kelly O’Dwyer has adopted the mea culpa approach, solemnly announcing that  the “parliamentary expense system needs to change” and claiming the government was following through on its in-principle acceptance of the recommendations of an independent review of the system.

She has said this week the changes would be made in the first half of the year, claiming there was a need to “streamline the current system”.

“A clear definition of what official business is is obviously at the centre of the changes that need to be made – and will be made – by the government in order to give the Australian people confidence that their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are respected and they can have confidence in the system,” Ms O’Dwyer said.

Meanwhile, in the red corner, acting opposition leader Penny Wong and shadow special minister of state Don Farrell also released a statement, naturally enough pontificating it was “well past time” for the government to act on the review.

Seriously? We don’t need any more words. We just need our politicians and their staff to take a simple approach: Spend taxpayers’ money as if it was your own.

If they wouldn’t whip out their own credit cards and pony up for the bill, maybe our politicians should think twice about asking the taxpayer to cough up.

The tone-deaf “above the great unwashed” approach taken by too many in the halls of power has already driven millions of voters away from the traditional Coalition or Labor double-act as into the arms of minor parties headed by the likes of Nick Xenophon and Pauline Hanson.

Voters are sick of being treated with contempt by politicians and if the major parties don’t recognise the issue and act quickly, the Hansons and Xenophons are only going to continue to garner support.

Politicians are usually only about as popular with voters as week-old soiled nappies, and the kind of contempt showed by the like of Ms Ley is only going to widen the gulf between voter and parliamentarian.

Voters can recognise when they’re being sold a pup and, increasingly, don’t fancy having to foot the bill.