MLA payrise

davo101 said :

Masquara said :

Oooooh yes they do. Who told you ACT politicians don’t have their own fat little super system to dip into? My neighbour is an MLA one-termer and on an exceptionally generous superannuation “wage”. Far higher than the average wage. Which they supplement with fulltime work in the public service !!!

goggles13 said :

why do politicians get immediate access to super when they leave parliament/legislative assembly when the rest of us have to wait?

dungfungus said :

I am aware that Gary Humphries took all his ACT Legislative Aseembly super as a lump sum. It would be interesting to know if ACT MLAs’ super is funded and who the fund managers are. My bet it would be one if the Industry Super Funds.

Shame you’re all wrong. A quick perusal of the Legislative Assembly (Members’ Superannuation) Act 1991 would tell you how the system actually works. The one-term wonder would have received one-year’s salary as a lump sum. Unless they are 55 years or older and not working they have to roll the lump sum over into a eligible choice fund. Anyone elected at the 2008 election or later is on the new accumulation scheme where they get an employer’s contribution of 14% of their salary (to the fund of their choice), which is pretty much what the rest of the public service is entitled to.

Well, the source for my claim was Gary Humphries himself, but politicians do sometimes tell porkies.

Masquara said :

Oooooh yes they do. Who told you ACT politicians don’t have their own fat little super system to dip into? My neighbour is an MLA one-termer and on an exceptionally generous superannuation “wage”. Far higher than the average wage. Which they supplement with fulltime work in the public service !!!

goggles13 said :

why do politicians get immediate access to super when they leave parliament/legislative assembly when the rest of us have to wait?

dungfungus said :

I am aware that Gary Humphries took all his ACT Legislative Aseembly super as a lump sum. It would be interesting to know if ACT MLAs’ super is funded and who the fund managers are. My bet it would be one if the Industry Super Funds.

Shame you’re all wrong. A quick perusal of the Legislative Assembly (Members’ Superannuation) Act 1991 would tell you how the system actually works. The one-term wonder would have received one-year’s salary as a lump sum. Unless they are 55 years or older and not working they have to roll the lump sum over into a eligible choice fund. Anyone elected at the 2008 election or later is on the new accumulation scheme where they get an employer’s contribution of 14% of their salary (to the fund of their choice), which is pretty much what the rest of the public service is entitled to.

goggles13 said :

Masquara said :

Garfield said :

Masquara said :

banco said :

I have no problem with it. It’s roughly an EL2 salary. Hardly high living in Canberra.

EL2s don’t get defined superannuation at around $90,000 a year, available at any age upon leaving the Assembly, and after a single term.

You’re confusing the Assembly and the Federal Parliament, and overestimating the super that Federal Parliamentarians get. Upon leaving the Assembly, our MLA’s do not get a pension. I was talking to an ex MLA a couple of years ago and after leaving the Assembly they were definitely not getting a taxpayer funded pension. Last year the Canberra Times reported that Gary Humphries would be receiving a pension of around $80,000 p.a. after his 11 years as a senator – well short of $90,000 after one term.

I’m not saying one way or another whether the federal pollies deserve the level of pension they receive, but if we want to talk about this, lets get the basics right.

Oooooh yes they do. Who told you ACT politicians don’t have their own fat little super system to dip into? My neighbour is an MLA one-termer and on an exceptionally generous superannuation “wage”. Far higher than the average wage. Which they supplement with fulltime work in the public service !!! (They are, not surprisingly, happy to be rather junior in their current work, little responsibility, and marvellously subsidised by that four year term) … as you can imagine they enjoy a rather superb lifestyle despite being in a very junior, “optional work, keeps me busy” position in the bureaucracy!

why do politicians get immediate access to super when they leave parliament/legislative assembly when the rest of us have to wait?

its about time everyone was treated the same, regardless of their profession. like everyone else, politicians should be required to show real efficiencies to justify payrises which should be limited to cost of living increases and no more.

I am aware that Gary Humphries took all his ACT Legislative Aseembly super as a lump sum.
It would be interesting to know if ACT MLAs’ super is funded and who the fund managers are. My bet it would be one if the Industry Super Funds.

Masquara said :

Garfield said :

Masquara said :

banco said :

I have no problem with it. It’s roughly an EL2 salary. Hardly high living in Canberra.

EL2s don’t get defined superannuation at around $90,000 a year, available at any age upon leaving the Assembly, and after a single term.

You’re confusing the Assembly and the Federal Parliament, and overestimating the super that Federal Parliamentarians get. Upon leaving the Assembly, our MLA’s do not get a pension. I was talking to an ex MLA a couple of years ago and after leaving the Assembly they were definitely not getting a taxpayer funded pension. Last year the Canberra Times reported that Gary Humphries would be receiving a pension of around $80,000 p.a. after his 11 years as a senator – well short of $90,000 after one term.

I’m not saying one way or another whether the federal pollies deserve the level of pension they receive, but if we want to talk about this, lets get the basics right.

Oooooh yes they do. Who told you ACT politicians don’t have their own fat little super system to dip into? My neighbour is an MLA one-termer and on an exceptionally generous superannuation “wage”. Far higher than the average wage. Which they supplement with fulltime work in the public service !!! (They are, not surprisingly, happy to be rather junior in their current work, little responsibility, and marvellously subsidised by that four year term) … as you can imagine they enjoy a rather superb lifestyle despite being in a very junior, “optional work, keeps me busy” position in the bureaucracy!

why do politicians get immediate access to super when they leave parliament/legislative assembly when the rest of us have to wait?

its about time everyone was treated the same, regardless of their profession. like everyone else, politicians should be required to show real efficiencies to justify payrises which should be limited to cost of living increases and no more.

Garfield said :

Masquara said :

banco said :

I have no problem with it. It’s roughly an EL2 salary. Hardly high living in Canberra.

EL2s don’t get defined superannuation at around $90,000 a year, available at any age upon leaving the Assembly, and after a single term.

You’re confusing the Assembly and the Federal Parliament, and overestimating the super that Federal Parliamentarians get. Upon leaving the Assembly, our MLA’s do not get a pension. I was talking to an ex MLA a couple of years ago and after leaving the Assembly they were definitely not getting a taxpayer funded pension. Last year the Canberra Times reported that Gary Humphries would be receiving a pension of around $80,000 p.a. after his 11 years as a senator – well short of $90,000 after one term.

I’m not saying one way or another whether the federal pollies deserve the level of pension they receive, but if we want to talk about this, lets get the basics right.

Oooooh yes they do. Who told you ACT politicians don’t have their own fat little super system to dip into? My neighbour is an MLA one-termer and on an exceptionally generous superannuation “wage”. Far higher than the average wage. Which they supplement with fulltime work in the public service !!! (They are, not surprisingly, happy to be rather junior in their current work, little responsibility, and marvellously subsidised by that four year term) … as you can imagine they enjoy a rather superb lifestyle despite being in a very junior, “optional work, keeps me busy” position in the bureaucracy!

Masquara said :

banco said :

I have no problem with it. It’s roughly an EL2 salary. Hardly high living in Canberra.

EL2s don’t get defined superannuation at around $90,000 a year, available at any age upon leaving the Assembly, and after a single term.

You’re confusing the Assembly and the Federal Parliament, and overestimating the super that Federal Parliamentarians get. Upon leaving the Assembly, our MLA’s do not get a pension. I was talking to an ex MLA a couple of years ago and after leaving the Assembly they were definitely not getting a taxpayer funded pension. Last year the Canberra Times reported that Gary Humphries would be receiving a pension of around $80,000 p.a. after his 11 years as a senator – well short of $90,000 after one term.

I’m not saying one way or another whether the federal pollies deserve the level of pension they receive, but if we want to talk about this, lets get the basics right.

There was a lady on the radio from the remuneration tribunal. she couldn’t explain how they made the 6% pay rise. She said the is no formula but federal public servants make more so we had to raise the pay rate.

Katy is always saying the ACT population is small yet on the other foot we need more money because we have a large work load and multiple portfolio’s. If the pollies stop fighting over he said she said politics they may actually be productive.

Katy Gallagher Let them eat cake

Personally I have a problem with the claimed ‘independence’ of the remuneration tribunal, noting that the spokesperson who appeared in the CT story seems to be involved in a lot of stuff in Canberra.

And hard questions should be asked about any salary increases higher than the usual measures (CPI, average weekly earnings). Politicians are basically ‘on a contract’ for four years and their performance is measured at the ballot box, and understand this fully when they enter into it, unlike yesteryear when contractual employment was unusual.

banco said :

I have no problem with it. It’s roughly an EL2 salary. Hardly high living in Canberra.

EL2s don’t get defined superannuation at around $90,000 a year, available at any age upon leaving the Assembly, and after a single term.

wildturkeycanoe said :

GrumpyMark said :

OK so the 6% MLA pay rise was approved by The ACT Remuneration Tribunal despite the Chief Minister suggesting the increase be the same as that for the public service.

According to the Chief Minister’s website (http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/governance/remtrib/home) “The ACT Remuneration Tribunal is an independent statutory tribunal with responsibility for setting the remuneration, allowances and entitlements for various public officials in the ACT …”

So who appoints the tribunal members?

GrumpyMark said :

OK so the 6% MLA pay rise was approved by The ACT Remuneration Tribunal despite the Chief Minister suggesting the increase be the same as that for the public service.

According to the Chief Minister’s website (http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/governance/remtrib/home) “The ACT Remuneration Tribunal is an independent statutory tribunal with responsibility for setting the remuneration, allowances and entitlements for various public officials in the ACT …”

So who appoints the tribunal members?

The Executive. But who that is nobody knows.

The Executive is Cabinet