Politicians' salaries

[Mercury Bullet]

Originally Posted by zipping

I agree with this having worked for a backbencher. It also costs them a lot going to functions and raising party funds to be a politician.

The real question is are we getting value for money. As JP said if they perform then its all good.

The problem is that we are attracting lifers on all sides with little real life experience. Whether being a union organiser or IPA'r or student activist the room for people with real life experience is limited.

Overwhelmingly, lawyers are massively over represented in the Parliament. Lawyers never create anything much of value and generally take a sledgehammer approach to small problems. Just pick any area of law and you will be astounded by how many statute laws there are plus delegated legislation.

I was interested to see how Ricky Muir would go as the accidental politician. Didn't do all that badly I preferred him to say a Xenophone or Wilkey.

We used to have unions looking after the workers interests.
Now it's a bunch of lawyers either working for big business or working for the greenies.

We have lost our voice.

[au350hp]

Originally Posted by nuthin' fancy

Politicians earn a fraction of what they would in the private market. The generous allowances and superannuation and pensions was to compensate them for their sacrifice.

Now, they are not lifetime politicians but use a period of time in politics to leverage opportunities outside politics.

I would prefer much more transparency. In addition to their salary, they receive many benefits, including an exemption from capital gains on some investment property.

They should be paid an overall salary and funds their lifestyle choices from this.
They should be banned from advantaging family members in the allowances they receive.
Their benefits after they leave should be means tested.

I agree with everything except the part about sacrifice. These people choose their vocation and are bloody well paid for it. Once upon a time the public sector was often lower wages but that was a long time ago. The public sector is in many areas, more generous than private and there is virtually no chance of losing your job once you work in Canberra. Don't forget we are living in the age of self entitlement. Look at the electricity bosses at the moment. Their choices to pay themselves $6.9 million a year and the manager's got $100k raises, are causing people everywhere to make changes that really impact on peoples lives. Apprenticeships, Jobs, price increases to offset the rise. All because the POLITICIANS SOLD ALL THE UTILITIES OFF. We didn't have a f&^*ing national plebiscite over that did we? So frustrating.

[Mercury Bullet]

But we did have plebiscites, they were called elections.

Problem is sheeple who suck up and believe everything they are told.
"The economy is booming" we were told. No it wasn't, the economy was living off asset sales. Now there is nothing left to sell.