No! No! No! No two per cent pay rise for politicians.
When you earn as much as they do – $550k for PM and $379k for MPs – you don’t need a pay rise.
Let’s reduce and cap their pay. More pay for the un- and under-employed; there aren’t enough jobs to go around. More money for the disabled.
Keeping the community together and the community voice loud and clear is what The Echo is about. More than ever we need your help to keep this voice alive and thriving in the community.
Like all businesses we are struggling to keep food on the table of all our local and hard working journalists, artists, sales, delivery and drudges who keep the news coming out to you both in the newspaper and online. If you can spare a few dollars a week – or maybe more – we would appreciate all the support you are able to give to keep the voice of independent, local journalism alive.
It was Labor in the nineteenth century that introduced a reasonable stipend for members and that was carried through to the federal parliament. If our politicians are not paid a good stipend and travel allowances we will attract people like Malcolm Turnbull who can afford it rather than people of more modest means who ahve a perhaps better contribution to make. My father was asked by Doug Anthony to take up a position in the Legislative Council in the fifties. For a small town chemist with a five kids, the then more modest Legislative Council stipend was not enough to compensate for the time away from his family and his business.
Our MPs are for the greater part well educated, able and hard working, and most could earn more elsewhere. I agree that we should increase benifits for the unemployed but we should acknowledge successive governments over the last three decades have delivered us higher rates of employment participation than ever, along with very good educational, health, and security outcomes. Overall Australia is very well governed. It is demanding work that we need done well, so let’s continue ot pay them well.