2 June 2005

Huge pay rises all round the Assembly

| johnboy
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The Chief Minister has interrupted his busy calendar of serious faced media conferences discussing the indonesian embassy to slide out a media release on the minor matter of stonking great pay raises for all and sundry in the ACT Assembly (although they will all still be eligible for public housing).

I particularly liked the shrill tone of self justification from lines like this:

The salary of the ACT Chief Minister is still lower than that of every other State and Territory leader bar one.

And the population of the ACT is… ? Why yes, much the same. Grow the revenue base and maybe we can afford to pay you more dude. You do know the money has to come from somewhere right? It’s not just Ted being an old woman.

Personally I’d like to see higher pay for MLA’s. But I’d like to see a more honest case made for it too.

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Canberra_unsung_hero7:42 am 07 Jun 05

Hmmmmm ….. an interesting possibility.

Samuel Gordon-Stewart11:35 pm 06 Jun 05

Simon, Katy & Ted would have had me locked up, they are very good at influencing legal proceedings (appropriate place for “sue me, I’m broke”), I reckon the people on the hill might have given me a pardon for ridding them of the pesky lunatic though…

Samuel

Canberra_unsung_hero10:48 pm 06 Jun 05

Glad you made that clarification about shooting Stanhope Samuel.
If he was found shot to death tomorrow, you MAY have been charged with inciting murder, or worse still… you may have been number 1 suspect !

She is talking about giving the riase to charity.

The pay arrangement is one both sides are complicit in.

Samuel Gordon-Stewart7:38 pm 06 Jun 05

I want Brendan…..somebody shoot Stanhope and make Brendan the Chief Minister (actually, don’t shoot Stanhope, but at least get him out of office).

I made a comment on Saturday morning along the lines of “If Jon Stanhope’s pay was performance based, he would get $210 per year”. I’m not sure why this was declared to be “silly” by the person I was talking to, but it was, and they promptly hung up on me…

I wonder if the Local-green-MLA-Yarralumla-housing-property occupant-loony-woman will have to pay more rent?

Samuel

Agree, not complaining about the democracy part, just the result but hey, majority rules so I’ll cop it. Fortunately many of his policies don’t affect me directly

I do, but I didn’t vote for Stanhope or Labor for the exact reasons that we have seen post-election. The disgrace that is the holding up of the bushfire coronial will be seen in history for what it was, a reason to stop it’s findings before the election. Stanhope et al will be roundly lambasted for their pathetic performance during the Territory’s biggest crisis. His incompetence is demonstrated more and more every day and, to top it all off, his biggest announcement of late is an International Arboreteum (spelling?) right in the middle of a drought. Nice one Johnny.

You do realise that “Canberra” means you too, VG?

and you voted for it Canberra!!

one of the Tribunal Members, Ms R. McRae is a former assembly member herself. Back in the mid 90’s Roberta McRae was a Labor MLA – chair of the house if memory serves as well.

Another case of jobs for the old boys.

too late to close the gate after the horse has bolted! How long until the next election?

Plenty of better ways to spend the money now rather than self-congratulatory backpats for work poorly done!

Thumper, I agree entirely. I meant to ask if anyone knows who those Tribunal members are?

I guess there is an argument that if you don’t think the pollies have earnt the payrise (ie. have not been productive), then the ballot box will be the way to deliver the message…

My only thought is that they wanted to take advantage of the Federal Govt’s tax cuts for the battling CEO’s and Execs.

In regards to the PS getting screwed every time; try the Private Sector! Granted, I am PS, however I have been so for only six months, and in that time it has become apparent to me that 80 percent of the PS would not and could not make a go of it in the private sector.

And none of this will be helped by the Fed’s new (and disgusting) labour laws they are trying to squeeze past the state and territory leaders!

Thumper – ACT pollies’ pay rises are determined by the “independent” Remuneration Tribunal. Their website lists its members as Mr A. Kerr, Ms R. McRae and Ms Jill Greenwell. They meet every year to determine pay increases for MLAs and holders of statutory officers, so those affected don’t even have to ask for one.

I’m just wondering whether Richard Mulcahy will be lifting his game and actually providing an effective opposition, or handing his payrise back . . .

He put this media release out a few days ago (note last par):

Subject : “WILL THE LAST PERSON OUT PLEASE TURN OFF THE LIGHTS?”

Author : Richard Mulcahy MLA

The best offset the ACT Government could secure through public sector wage negotiations, was through electricity savings from lights being turned off over the Christmas and New Year period on days given off to public servants, it was revealed in ACT Estimates Hearings today.
Stunned by the revelations, Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Richard Mulcahy said “this underlines the complete incapacity of Industrial Relations Minister Katy Gallagher to put the interest of taxpayers ahead of unions in terms of wage negotiations.”

“Clearly the Government is incapable of securing any substantial trade offs as part of the negotiating process.

“Unfortunately the Government is a captive of the union movement in Canberra, despite the fact that only 18% of the population holds union membership.

“At the end of the day, wages represent one of the most significant outlays in the budget, and to hear that their only major negotiating win was through electricity savings from days given off is bewildering.

“It appears quite obvious that the ACT Government is struggling to defend it’s poor handling of wage negotiations on behalf of the taxpayer.

“Any increase in wages warrants securing some sort of productivity gain before an increase is granted.

“Productivity improvements should always be sought when wages are negotiated, especially as the Territory is now living beyond its means,” Mr Mulcahy said.

That’s why I always put in the bare minimum.

And note their pay rises are linked to whatever the rest of the political class of the nation is hooked into.

Vic Bitterman8:38 pm 02 Jun 05

What a sickening and disgusting waste of my hard earned taxes.

Any pay rises for the govt dept where I work, can only come from ‘productivity gains’, and are never, ever, ever linked to CPI. We get squeezed ever harder and harder each year to get a ‘pay rise’. None of this ‘independent remuneration tribunals’ and such guff. And each year our real wage erodes with CPI, which the pollies are happy to flout for their own causes. But not ours.

I guess Gordon Gecko was right after all.

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