So, MPs have been given a pay-rise for xmas - $4,000, nice money if you can get it. But while I want our elected representatives to be well-paid, there are two things about this which stink.
Firstly, its backdated. There's a a huge level of hypocrisy here, as the government has decreed that no public service pay rise shall be backdated. So, its one rule for politicians, and another for the people who work for them. Colour me unsurprised.
Secondly, $2,000 of that increase is "compensation" for MPs reduced usage of their international travel perk, a pure rort they should never have been given in the first place. So, they steal from us, then get a pay rise to "compensate" them for stopping. Of course, they can point the finger at the remuneration commission, who is obliged to set their salaries on a "total compensation" basis, but who made them do that? MP's did, of course, as a way of grabbing more money for the removal of perks some years ago. And then they wonder why the public regards them as grasping, greedy little fucks. They have no-one but themselves to blame.
(This is unfair to newer MPs, who are not responsible for the greedy, self-interested decisions of the past. But if they want to avoid being tarred with the same brush as Pansy Wong and Lockwood Smith, they could always speak out about it. And if they don't, then we can regard them as complicit).
