Right from the days of the ancient Greek Polis, we've been paying people to make community decisions for the common good. Over the ages we seemed to have muddled through with a fair sprinkling of good talent, and bad apple drones, but we can do better.

Politicians' entitlements total about $500 million a year. That's the equivalent of $2.2 million per federal politician. There must be scope for efficiencies.

First up, a House of Representatives term should last four years to give a government time to implement its policies without worrying so soon about the next election. The Senate term could be cut from six to four years. It's just a clone of the party house in the House of Rep's anyway, so no need to stagger the terms into half-senate elections.

Get rid of the above-line voting scam in Senate elections, which entices voters to lazily number a box under their preferred party or candidate. This then forces the Electoral Commission to distribute votes as dictated by the preferred party. Make voters number enough squares to elect 12 senators every four years.

Get rid of public funding of election campaigns. Why should taxpayers be forced to pay to be bombarded with useless, repetitive propaganda? Parties and candidates get $2.60 per vote from taxpayers once they've polled a mere 4 per cent of the primary vote.

Put a cap on election campaigns, as they do with our own Legislative Council elections, and achieve the same level playing field - without costing taxpayers a cent.

When a senator resigns or retires mid-term there should be a byelection like they have in the House of Representatives. Why should a handful of people within a political party have the power to parachute a colleague into the Senate, and bypass a proper and popular vote?

Federal MPs got a massive pay rise two years ago, to $195,130 a year. The payrise was supposed to include their electoral allowances being rolled into the base salary. These range from $32,000 to $46,000 a year, but our greedy politicians took the payrise and kept the electoral allowance as well. The allowance is just a salary supplement. A perk.

Restrict electoral allowances so they can only be used strictly in the performance of official duties, and not for private expenditure like gifts, dry cleaning and theatre tickets.

Axe the charter budget. If an MP with a big electorate needs to charter an aircraft to go bush let them apply for it on a needs, case-by-case basis. In the meantime, force all MPs to fully disclose what a charter flight was for and also submit it to the Department of Finance for scrutiny.

Axe the resettlement allowance for MPs who lose an election. This little earner can mean a golden handshake of up to six months pay, or almost $100,000, simply because a sitting member wasn't smart enough to get re-elected. It rewards failure.

Sell half the RAAF VIP fleet and restrict RAAF courtesy flights to the governor-general and prime minister, and the opposition leader during election campaigns. Ministers don't need their own private airline.

And please - axe the Life Gold Pass. Rid the planet forever of this useless, expensive, business-class perk for retired politicians. It was always just another golden handshake, available for life, and symbolised the age of entitlement. Bronwyn Bishop's luxury chopper ride to Geelong was tame and excusable by comparison.