Despite his win as Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd may not be as good as balancing the budget as one might assume. The reason being - his phone bills in the first half of the year skyrocketed to $29,676.

Among other big spenders was Bob Car, Foreign Minister, with travel expenses valued at $721,576 and that was only for overseas travel, according to a news report by news.com.au. Carr has also been criticised on taking his wife on foreign tours.

Coming back to Rudd, newly elected Prime Minister, splurged on travel abroad dishing out $27,000. He has been labeled 'Kevin 247' by reporters and observers and his latest venture overseas include a 'study abroad' travel of Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland to gain more insight into how governments work.

Rudd, who was popular among foreign dignitaries collaborated with high flying diplomats like the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to organise and attend conferences and formal meetings.

But the opposition party is not free of blame for making use of governmental funds either. Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition party, rang up a phone bill of $33,523, for the last half of 2012 - a hefty amount indeed.

Shockingly, MPs at the federal level managed to rack up more than a whopping $5 million on just office-related expenditures and travel.

As evidence of the new Prime Minister's spending habits, the most recent reports on parliamentary accounts revealed Rudd among the three top phone users in the parliament - with Liberal MP Barry Haase at first and Abbott trailing behind. Phone bills of 226 MPs were collected to compile the report.

In comparison, Julia Gillard spent just $2,961during his term as prime minister; the figure is ten times less than what Rudd had spent.

Rudd defended his high bills saying that most of his phone bills were spent to consult the Queensland MP, which he is entitled to since he is a former prime minister. He also said that traveling to New York and other key locations resulted in meeting dignitaries like former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger and New Zealand PM Helen Clark.

The 'study trip' mentioned in Rudd's parliamentary provisions refers to a three-day trip used to leverage power deals with international leaders.

According to a report by ABC news, salaries of federal politicians will go up $195,130. Amanda Vanstone, who is an ex-minister from John Howard's tenure says it is easy to blame politicians for their expenses and salary hikes: "Let's kick the pollies it's an easy, easy target."

Others feel like the model used in Brazil to give politicians middle class wages have improved the federal system, while pay hikes of $10,000 in Canada have not made much difference.

Rudd will be the first to get a pay of more than $500,000, which includes the recent 2.4 percent raise.

With a growing debate about perks and whether federal officials should allow or block salary hikes, it will be interesting to see how Rudd fulfils his second term in office in an economy that has seen a 22-year recession free economy.