Terry Ryder
Has anyone out there ever met Jan Jarratt? How about Rachel Nolan? Christine Smith? Stuart Copeland? Andrew McNamara? Desley Scott? Bonny Barry? Peta-Kaye Croft?
Has anyone even heard of them? I ask, because all these people, and others, will receive a lifetime pension of at least $63,500 a year for doing nothing, compliments of the Queensland taxpayer.
They get this windfall for having served in State Parliament for eight years. Now that the State Government has called an election, any of the MPs who have eight years service don’t need to worry too much about losing. They can live off the public purse for as long as they remain breathing.
Given that we’re going to financially support these parasites for life, we really should have met them – or at least heard of them. They must have done something pretty damn special to deserve such generosity (in addition to their salaries).
Meanwhile, over at another of our many branches of government, Queensland mayors recently won their second pay rise in a matter of months after complaining of being over-worked and under-paid. Last year they wangled 20% pay rises and from January they got another 5%. Some are now paid $150,000 a year.
The curious thing is that council elections were held only last year. All the people now serving as mayors absolutely begged us to put them in the job. Now they’re claiming they don’t get paid enough. Presumably they knew the pay rates before they harassed us into electing them.
This reminds me of a Maleny politician whose first act as a councillor was to vote for a pay rise, claiming over-work/under-pay. This was before actually doing any of the work for which the councillor was elected.
Meanwhile, at yet another bloated level of government, Kevin Rudd pushed through bonus payments for his senior advisors (who earn $250,000 a year) in the same week that he demanded workers show wage restraint because of the downturn.
The theme here, once again, is waste. One of the many reasons we pay increasingly large sums in rates, taxes, duties, levies, charges, fees, tolls, excises and dues is because politicians are far more generous to themselves than they are to us.
• Anna Bligh, the only Premier with a private jet, used it to fly to Townsville to watch a footie match at a cost of $11,000 – when a return ticket with Virgin Blue would have cost $168. She also used the jet to fly to Sydney for a State of Origin match.
• Queensland Rail organized a 60-guest Riverfire function costing $30,000 then scrapped it (at a cost of $24,500 because of the late cancellation).
• A Gold Coast councillor cost ratepayers $15,000 for a trip to Dubai with her husband to hand out pamphlets at a conference.
• A Tasmanian politician spent $63,836 on a trip to the US, accompanied by his wife.
• In Victoria, where public transport is in a dire state, the Transport Minister outlaid $23 million to have her offices refurbished.
• A toxic water study for the Queensland Government, expected to cost $107,000, ended up costing $2.6 million – sparking a CMC inquiry into where the money went.
Many of us are familiar with the British television series Yes Minister. Most people thought it was a comedy. It was, in fact, a documentary.
Terry Ryder
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