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Aussie MP slapped with $10k phone bill

Son downloads games on his iPhone

An Australian politician was slapped with a $10,500 phone bill after his 12-year-old son downloaded soccer and AFL games on his iPhone.

Russell Wortley, a member of South Australia's Upper House, doesn't see his mobile bill, usually $200 a month - the tab is picked up by tax payers. He was told the news on Friday by Parliamentary officials, who approve expenses.

"I was absolutely staggered", Wortley told Adelaide Now.

"My normal bill is less than $200 and I am still in shock at getting a bill for more than $10,000," he said. "There were huge sums being charged over relatively short periods, in one case $4000 for one hour and six minutes of use for a download, in another case $3000. My son had used the phone to download what were advertised as free sports games such as soccer and football, but because of the plan we were on Telstra charged for the downloads."

Wortley was unlikely to have had a data browsing pack, which means he was charged $2 for every megabyte his son downloaded. Ouch. "Even if the application is free the data to download isn't," a Telstra spokesman told Adelaide Now.

Wortley is trying to renegotiate the bill with Telstra - otherwise he has to stump up the money himself. We guess he has better bargaining power than most... ®

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