ACT Pollies receive 4.1% pay rise

Kris209 said :

i think its f***ing disgusting. How much is enough? 100k, 200k bullsh** and still rising.
EL’s the same. No damn way the managers here do 2.5 x the work i do, but they are paid that difference. Meanwhile those of us on under 50k get sent these ‘look at these poor starving people’ emails, and see ads on tv about locals unable to afford a jumper for the winter. Most of us work 35/40 hours a week. Some working couples struggle endlessly to afford, or, simply cant afford to buy a house, while other have 2 or 3. One of the biggest discriminations of our times i reckon.

I guess being Chief Minister it is not a 9-5 job, I just think that a percentage payrise is an insult to lower paid workers (like myself). I work 50 hours a week (55 hours this week) and if I’m lucky will just clear $40K this year (gross not nett). The lyrics to one of Midnight Oil’s songs comes to mind – “The rich get richer, the poor get the picture” Quite ironic actually now Peter Garrett is now a pollie himself.

between high and low income allocations.
thats a hell of a lot more than i or most people I know get.

Gap between who/what? If a backbencher gets around $113K, then they are not earning a hell of a lot more than a lot of people who post here (& probably considerably less than some).

yeh fair enough. It does deserve a decent pay, i just think that the gap between shouldnt be SO great.

No offense taken. I don’t claim to love one pollie over another…just that it’s a job that really does command a decent salary. As GA said in the post above, you’re looking at a $20-40K outlay jst to have a CHANCE of getting voted in.

I wouldnt call Stanhope one either.
“hey ive got an idea! lets penalise the venues that provide a happy social end of week drinking place even harder for the behaviour of a few morons! thats a much better idea than coming down harder on those that go out and look for trouble. We’ll just give them a little slap on the wrist and let them ruin it for the rest instead of using them to make an example to the rest of their kind”. (no offense justbands, just get sh**s with the logic of)

I’m with Thumper. Having been there, I can vouch that not too many jobs that have the sorts of personal intrusion or extraordinary hours that an elected rep has. We kept Mr Barr MLA at our meeting until after 9.30 last night for instance. And I’m sure he gets that sort of thing several times every week.

But the pay is getting towards the sort of area where one might consider having another go at it – but then there’s the $20-40,000 job application process…not too many EL2s/SES1s would be prepared to shell that out.

Dear Justbands I would not call Deb Foskey a capable leader, just for the record.

@Jazz & Kris209:
I got to have a job a while back where ANAO would routinely audit me as an APS3-4 as despite working in tech support I both gave advice to APS5+, ELs, and SES on how to draw up their contracts in the system, did the original data entry, and also had to write up SIRs, RFCs, and PVRs pointing out system flaws (some minor, others quite major that had been missed in spec).

Apparently even though an APS3-4 not having direct financial accountability, they are seen by ANAO are part of the first line of defence\offense, and the potential opportunities for collusion, deception, or direct fraud can be huge.

Im in IT/Admin/stores. Fairly low level but a lot resting on it.
There’s a large amount of money in IT, and high demand, but of course a lot of competition. Its really just a stable income only while working on other projects (quietly of course) such as music and military.

Sounds good. What do you do?

What sort of job do you do Kris209? My experience has been that the shiny pieces of paper are good for getting in the door, but once you’re in they don’t really matter so much.

Another way to earn good $ is to get into a field that is in demand, but doesn’t have many people working in it. This is where I sit, and earn very good $ without any real financial responsibility at all. That said, if I give bad advice it could cost my company a lot.

Jazz – i actually hold a lot of financial responsibility and overall acountability in my position. My pay packet doesnt appreciate this as i dont have those shiny bits of paper from uni or equivelant to make some types smile. But that’s my specific case; generally speaking, that’s a good point you make.

>the level of responsibility, the hours, the stress…
Its nothing on what the SASR face…i guess thats another story though.

> Well why dont they then?…

Some do. Perhaps the ones that stay actually feel like they are contributing to the community.

& yes, really…it’s not a lot of money considering the level of responsibility, the hours, the stress, the fickle nature of the job (coiuld get voted out), the public profile, etc.

Kris209. They may not do 2.5x the amount of work that you do, but it is conceiveable that you dont have the same level of accountability if you fuck up either?

IMO remuneration is very often correlated to the direct financial impact of screwing something up. Either that, or you can do something that everyone wants to be able to do, but very few can (eg professional sports)

Well why dont they then?…
Not a lot of money!? I wonder if the boys in the SASR earn a 3rd of that for doing the job theyre doing…

boo hoo whinge whine complain. You want capable leaders? You have to pay them. So Stanhope gets less than $250K…regardless of the comments here, that’s not a lot of money for the job he’s doing. Most pollies (yes, even our local ones!) could earn far, far more cash persuing careers outside of politics.

The way that pollies both State and federal treat their payrises is hideous – agreed. What is also disgusting is their retirement benefits and when they can access their superannuation. This compared to the rest of society who have to wait until they are 60 or 65. This is not a new phenomenon and every year people scream when pollies get a payrise off their “independant” body. They always scream “Wage Restraint!!!!!!!” Never practice what they preach.
I can’t think of an alternative to this nepotisitic system. Anyone have any ideas that are sensible? Ant I would be interest to hear from one of our senior citizens.

i think its f***ing disgusting. How much is enough? 100k, 200k bullsh** and still rising.
EL’s the same. No damn way the managers here do 2.5 x the work i do, but they are paid that difference. Meanwhile those of us on under 50k get sent these ‘look at these poor starving people’ emails, and see ads on tv about locals unable to afford a jumper for the winter. Most of us work 35/40 hours a week. Some working couples struggle endlessly to afford, or, simply cant afford to buy a house, while other have 2 or 3. One of the biggest discriminations of our times i reckon.

It’s not like they authorised it themselves. And Thumper is right. SES will be earning more than Gentleman and Porter.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

The problem, of course, is how to measure their performance. Personally, I’d rather pay them more, and have them more accountable for their actions.

I am with you. Let’s treat the ACT government as a corporation. That way, when a pollie is caught out doing something dodgy, we can utilise the 3 warnings system:

1st written warning, no pay rise.
2nd written warning, no pay rise and counselling through ACT Health system
3rd and final warning, no pay rise, counselling through ACT health system and Public transport to work.

after that, it is election time!

and as a member of the corporation, if what they do warrants it, the police can be called….

The problem, of course, is how to measure their performance. Personally, I’d rather pay them more, and have them more accountable for their actions.

I thought any payrise was supposed to be linked to performance…

I reckon if a pay increase for the pollies is deemed neccessary thern maybe a flat rate instead of a percentage. 4% of $100K+ is a lot of money (some would say too much…), whereas 4% of <$40K is fark all really. Give them say $50 a week (which is still a lot more than <$40K people will get).

I’m also getting a four percent payrise in July! I can’t wait!! Looks like i might crack $38k this year! (i’m in child care)

i can recall reading somewhere that in an asian country, cant remeber which one…singapore rings a bell, that they found the best way improve govt performance, and more importantly to in this case to reduce corruption was to drastically increase the politicians pay, the theory being that higher pay = higher rewards for staying elected making the alternative less plaltable and hence the politicians would perform better in order to improve their chances of being re-elected.

in this case inflations around 4% so this raise would seem about fair.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Let’s pay these hopeless pricks even more money to mismanage this place just so they can shove up our rates, regos, water etc. etc. How about we get some positive results from them before they receive these sorts of pay increases? When it comes to the garbage guys or the bus drivers, the politicians are screaming out that they can’t afford it and it needs to be performance related and so on and so on. Bullshit, blah, blah, blah. Funny how it doesn’t work the other way round isn’t it????