Pay rise for politicians, but workers must wait

Mark Davis Political Correspondent
June 20, 2007

FEDERAL MPs are set to get a pay rise of $153 a week from next month while the country's lowest-paid workers will have to wait until later this year for their next minimum wage rise.

The Remuneration Tribunal has approved the latest salary increases for MPs which deliver a special "restructuring" 2.5 per cent pay rise on top of their annual CPI adjustment worth 4.2 per cent this year.

The latest increases, which the Greens and independent MP Peter Andren will move to overturn, will take the base salary for a federal backbencher from $118,950 to nearly $127,000 from July 1.

Salaries for the prime minister, the opposition leader, ministers and parliamentary office-holders will rise by larger amounts.

The Greens leader, Bob Brown, said the pay rises were not justifiable and should be overruled by Parliament which can disallow Remuneration Tribunal determinations.

"While 1.2 million pensioners have had no real increase in their meagre $219 per week since Howard came to power, MPs are getting more than $150 a week on top of the extra tax cuts for the rich in the Costello budget," Senator Brown said.

The latest decisions flow from a tribunal decision last year to restructure the pay system for senior public servants, increasing salaries over and above the annual inflation-based salary reviews from 2006-07 to 2008-09. MPs' salaries are linked to a benchmark public service salary.

Earlier yesterday it emerged that the 1.2 million workers who rely on federal minimum wages are likely to get their next pay rise on the eve of this year's federal election under a timetable revealed by the Australian Fair Pay Commission.

The chair of the wage-fixing body, Ian Harper, said that while the commission would announce the size of the wage rise next month it would give employers more time to start paying the increase.

Professor Harper would not nominate the "operative date" for the increase. But the commission had listened to employer feedback that the two-month gap between last year's decision and the operative date had not been long enough to adjust payrolls and secure Australian Industrial Relations Commission rulings on allowances.

But the commission would ensure employers did not have to begin paying the new wage rates in the December-January holiday period. Professor Harper's comments suggest employers may have three to four months to start applying the wage rise after it is announced in early July.

That would see the rise hitting workers' pay packets in October or November. This is when the Prime Minister, John Howard, is expected to call the election.

Fraud inquiry MP repays $24,000

A FEDERAL Liberal MP at the centre of an alleged electoral allowance fraud inquiry has quietly repaid almost $24,000, it was reported last night.

Ross Vasta, who is one of three Queensland Liberals being investigated by the Australian Federal Police, told Channel Seven he had repaid the Department of Finance over "administrative errors" in his electoral spending. Mr Vasta was not available to comment last night.

Police raided the offices of Mr Vasta, Andrew Laming and Gary Hardgrave in March following claims that their taxpayer-funded allowances had been used to prop up the state Liberal Party's election campaign. All three MPs have denied any wrongdoing.


SMH 20-6-7

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/pay-rise-for-politicians-but-workers-must-wait/2007/06/19/1182019118070.html

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