Give us a break on pollie pay
Politicians didn’t change Tasmania, that was another bloke, says Peter Alexis
WHAT a time to be discussing pay rises for pollies. An article by David Killick questions whether the public care about Tasmanian politicians getting a pay rise due to the lack of submissions to the Tasmanian Industrial Commission ( Mercury, December 29). One look at Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream probably describes best how we feel about things at present. The context, positioning and timing of those notices is evidence of the underhanded way this subject is handled by both political parties every time the issue comes up. People are tired, exhausted and losing faith in the growing inequity and the diminishing say they get as ever greater rewards so often go to those responsible for spectacular failure at all levels of government. Competent pollies are few and far between. They exist, but with so many examples of politicians completely out of their league ( faking it). In Tasmania there are no more examples of stellar underachievement than retired parliamentarians who get repositioned into ever more lucrative jobs after they leave office.
If you are looking for just a few examples, from both sides of the aisle, you can do no better than see that for over thirty years in the making, truckloads of money spent and what do we have now as our major hospital? Third world waiting lists and an ongoing argument about building a second hospital or starting the project afresh. Did you know every tap in the new K block displays a label warning that the water is not to be consumed. How does that happen on a project of this size in this day and age? We have a university that has turned real estate and education into a blood sport and the proposed replacement Bass Strait ferry is so far over the horizon we cannot even see their mastheads. That’s planning and implementation for you.
Is it any wonder there was no input from either party into the Industrial Commission to review politicians’ wages, invariably at double or more the rate than for other government employees. Post World War II, politicians had similar status and pay to school teachers. That has changed so dramatically you would not think politicians live on the same planet when it comes to income and perks. Pollies claim their workload and insecurity of tenure as reason for this exceptionalism but, in this day and age, job security is non- existent for pretty much everybody and as for workload they need to take a look out there and see what is happening around them. There is a big difference between being endlessly, busily involved than there is to achieving results. This is a distinction that few politicians are able to make. Renumeration for pollies has been decoupled from the rest of the population and from reality, and it is well past the time for these people to demonstrate leadership and join the people they are supposed to represent.
Tasmania has changed, but let’s make it very clear: the guy that changed it is David Walsh. He switched the lights on down here a decade ago and every politician and tourism apparatchik jumped on to his coat- tails as if they have been a part of it. They don’t recall the slow uphill crawl when it was left to them to bring this island out of its shell but they were always there in good times and bad when it came to pay rises — for themselves. No, I say, and so do thousands of other Tasmanians. To gain a better talent pool I am happy with a handful more of them. But politicians in Tasmania in general are overplayed, overpaid and at it once again. And the opposition on whichever side, as always, are missing in action.
As a pensioner I have to live with what I’ve got and if you cannot live on what today’s politicians get then you should start your own business ( outside of government) or take a stroll to Centrelink. But that’s another story.