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Oct 19, 2011

Aussie Politicians to get redundancy for losing.

'If the public purse supports you, would you give up work for good:
And the parliamentary member said, me bloody oath I would."
- (Adaption of “The Bastard from the Bush)

Cartoon: By Pickering.


The Remuneration Tribunal seems to be in an extremely generous mood this time around. Federal politicians who have just been granted a near doubling of their salaries, are to be given six months salary as a redundancy package if they have served more than one term. This currently amounts to over $70,000 but when the new pay scales kick in will increase to $125,000 for being kicked out by the voters.

It seems odd that there should be any form of redundancy for the position of member of parliament as it is includes by its nature, the risk of voted out at the end of their terms. Those entering into this occupation are aware of this and are well compensated for it. Many of those voted out tend to be given jobs, either by government, or in private enterprise consistent with their abilities, such as lobbyists, or spruikers for whorehouses and so on.

These conditions also flow on to state and local politicians:

The politicians' bonus is far more than the redundancy available to other workers. …

Given the Labor Party's leadership crisis - and the possibility of an early election - those MPs could be on the receiving end of the increased redundancy payments sooner than expected.

While politicians get a windfall, some NSW employees are entitled to as little as four weeks' redundancy while the most is 16 weeks pay for around 10 years, or 20 weeks for those aged 45 and over.

The MP payout is part of a trade-off promised in 2004 by former PM John Howard when he bowed to pressure from Labor's then leader Mark Latham and closed the generous taxpayer-funded superannuation scheme for MPs. …

The redundancy package already gives federal MPs three months pay worth about $35,000 but this will leap to 26 weeks for all MPs elected after October 2004 or those who took their seat earlier but do not receive their generous parliamentary superannuation until aged 55.

It is available to MPs who "retire involuntarily" such as those who lose their seat at an election or try to shift seats and fail. It will also be paid to those who lose their party pre-selection for a seat.

3 comments:

  1. I'm overwhelmed with grief, hang on, who are the stupid cunts that voted these robbing bastards into government.
    You're on your own blue.

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  2. The way I see it the job of elected representative is much like contract work. They know the terms before they apply: six years in the Senate or half that in the House of Reprehensibles (in practice more if you can get your over compensated arse into a safe seat, which is probably more than half of 'em). Maybe they'll get an extension when the time's up, maybe not. Either way, they shouldn't get any more than anyone else whose work has come to an end and if that's a daunting thought they probably haven't got the stuff needed for the job in the first place.

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  3. It might be fair to pay their expenses to get home with their gear, but thats about all I could justify.

    ReplyDelete