Are Australian politicians paid too much?
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right: On September 19, 2019, 7 News televised a report featuring the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, defending the recent salary increase granted Victorian parliamentarians.
What they said...'Here we have a socialist left Premier snaffling another forty-six thousand dollars of taxpayers money from, well you know, that could go to the poor'
Andrew Bolt, social and political commentator (pictured at left)
'It's necessary to have a salary sufficient to attract and retain people of capacity, but no one would suggest that this is a level of remuneration that would rival private sector employment'
John Conde, president of the Remuneration Tribunal
The issue at a glance
On September 17, 2019, it was announced that Victoria's parliamentarians had been awarded a substantial pay rise by the state's Independent Remuneration Tribunal. The announcement received significant media attention, in part because the increase made Victoria's premier, Daniel Andrews, the highest paid of all state or territory leaders.
Andrews' pay increase was met with opposition by some media commentators such as Andrew Bolt.
Numerous reader comments on media sites were also critical of the increases. On June 7, 2019, it had previously been announced that Australia's federal parliamentarians would receive a 2 percent page increase. This was recommended by the federal Independent Remuneration Tribunal. The increase came into effect on July 1, 2019.
An ABC News report published on June 7, 2019, noted, 'The timing of the pay rise will be hard to accept for some of the nation's lower-paid workers, as it coincides with the next round of penalty rate cuts ordered two years ago by the independent Fair Work Commission.'
Both state and federal parliamentarians stressed that their increases had been recommended by independent tribunals.