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The Forum > Article Comments > Salaries for politicians? Time for a radical rethink > Comments

Salaries for politicians? Time for a radical rethink : Comments

By Vern Hughes, published 6/3/2009

'Service to community' is a platitude politicians will serve up when asked about their motivation. But it’s just a job. A career like any other.

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What I wish is that the mechanism of deciding a politicians salary package be brought into line with something similar with what the rest of society has.
Politicians are offering to supply a service and we the public accept or reject to offer at election time. In this respect it is a standard contract. However main difference between a poliction's employment contract are what we the rest of society have is that the amount paid for the service (the contract's consideration) is completely determined by the politicians whereas for us it is negotiated between the parties involved. Politicians are some of the only workers that can set their own terms and conditions of employment at will without having to bargain with us voters- their employers.
A step in the right direction to fix with is that on the ballot-paper at election time, right next to their name, is the salary figure that they will accept do the job. Each politician sets their own bid. This bid figure is the ONLY pay they receive- no other entitlements, no superannuation. In this way the politicians are now bidding against each other applicant for the job-- just like it is for the rest of us!
Posted by thinkabit, Friday, 6 March 2009 10:11:20 AM
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Thinkabit, but not a lot. What an incredibly insane suggestion. We can vote for the cheapest canditate! Thinkabit more and remember "pay peanut's, get monkey's".
Posted by hedgehog, Friday, 6 March 2009 10:24:45 AM
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hedgehog,
You don't have to vote for the cheapest tendered bid.
This system now makes it the same as for any other service or good that you buy. For example, if you wish to build a house, you do your homework and make general social enquiries about builders in your area and their reputations. You then get quotes from the various builders that you feel are suitable and decide which should be awarded the job. You don't have to use the cheapest, no-one forces you to do that- you make a decision based on quality and cost.
What you don't do is decide on a builder and then give them blank cheque and tell them to build your house. Effectively we give politicians a blank cheque, they can (and do) give themselves payrises, entitilements, etc. at anytime without ever having to negotiate with us -the voters/their employers- for them.
Posted by thinkabit, Friday, 6 March 2009 10:46:36 AM
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Pay is not the issue. The key missing ingredient is accountability.

We need to find a way to hold politicians, and the party they stand for, accountable for the promises they make at election time.

The means to enforce this already exists in the form of "recall elections",

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recall_election

...where the public has access to a process that can fire a non-performer.

Even Aristotle's Constitution of the Athenians ensured that once every thirtyfive days, at a full Assembly, the people were required to ratify the continuance of the elected officers. Twice a year, they were allowed to voice their complaints about "an individual [who] has made some promise to the people and has not performed it." This was a serious charge, and those found guilty of this charge were severely punished.

http://www.constitution.org/ari/athen_06.htm (see: part 43)

Regrettably, we have over the years - mostly during the twentieth century - handed the keys of the asylum to the inmates, and they aren't about to change anything.

Would you volunteer to give up a gravy train, where you set your own salary, take overseas trips on taxpayers' money, and award yourself an obscene pension?

Sadly, principled politicians are like hens' teeth. Ted Mack was the last of them, retiring just before those obscene entitlements kicked in.

His replacement? Joe Hockey.

Bad bargain.
Posted by Pericles, Friday, 6 March 2009 2:19:28 PM
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Pay is not the issue. The key missing ingredient is accountability.

it's called voting.
Posted by Kenny, Friday, 6 March 2009 10:33:18 PM
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I can't be sure, Kenny, but I fear you may have missed my point.

>>Pay is not the issue. The key missing ingredient is accountability. it's called voting<<

When we plebs go to vote, it is in response to the proposals of each candidate, concerning their intentions, once elected.

We have at that point exhausted our opportunities to influence the course of lawmaking and governance.

We are allowed no recourse when a "Never, ever GST" commitment made before an election becomes a fully implemented GST after it.

What those elected proceed to do with our "mandate" is beyond our control.

I am suggesting that it shouldn't be.

Where a candidate subsequently votes against a measure that had been a component of a platform put to the electorate, that should be a criminal offence, since it is a form of theft. Putting a few wayward pollies behind bars for a few years without soap for the showers should quickly bring the rest into line.

Similarly, if they vote for a measure that they had previously condemned in their manifesto, they should be automatically jailed for contempt of the citizenry, a new offence similar to contempt of court. Where a jail sentence for court contempt can only be lifted by a judge, a politician incarcerated for citizenry contempt would only be freed by popular vote.

It is of course quite possible that our prisons would presently be inadequate for the task.

To round it off, where a proposal before parliament was not part of their platform, the politician should be required to abstain from voting, on the grounds that their electorate has not been permitted a voice on the topic.

Unfortunately, the parliamentary response to this would, no doubt, be to give MPs a secret ballot, so that we are unable to discover how our member placed their vote.

The only possible means to change this situation is for the general populace to chain itself to the nearest parliamentary railings, with the slogan "no mandate without accountability", or the more demotic "take some responsibility, you lazy bunch of money-grubbing leeches".

Democracy, anyone?
Posted by Pericles, Sunday, 8 March 2009 2:31:23 PM
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I've worked in Parliament and what surprised me the most is that the large majority of representatives were hardworking and dedicated. Some were very bright and some even thoughtful. I disagreed with the vast majority of what they thought and did - but increasingly I came to the conclusion that it wasn't the quality of the individuals but the system they operated under. There are a number of defects that can be pointed to - lack of accountability; the time frames in which they operate (short term); the role of lobbying and big money; the underlying belief that the economy is the sum total of society. Citizen based Parliament is enormously appealing but currently both an impossibility and unworkable...I think we need to accept that the leaders we get reflect the society we've allowed to develop around us. Ill, greedy, stupid and a failure. Our rethinking needs to go much deeper.
Posted by next, Monday, 9 March 2009 6:24:36 AM
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What concerns me, next, is that it is possible to accept everything you say about politicians, and still find the system totally unacceptable.

>>...the large majority of representatives were hardworking and dedicated. Some were very bright and some even thoughtful<<

If we have dedicated and hard working people in parliament, why are they so much on the nose? According to successive Morgan polls, their ethical standards are judged to equate with journalists, car salespeople and advertising executives.

You accurately describe the fundamental flaws...

>>There are a number of defects that can be pointed to - lack of accountability; the time frames in which they operate (short term); the role of lobbying and big money; the underlying belief that the economy is the sum total of society.<<

...and I cannot help but agree with your summary:

>>I think we need to accept that the leaders we get reflect the society we've allowed to develop around us. Ill, greedy, stupid and a failure.<<

Would it not therefore be a really positive - and simple - start, to introduce a level of individual accountability?

Simply stated, we record all commitments made by the candidates at polling time, and publish them after the individual is elected. Those that are breached attract specific punishment.

This is not a form of "Citizen based Parliament", but an attempt to introduce some reality into the process. Right now, a voter has no power at all, given that every single promise made before an election may be broken with impunity.

Which makes a mockery of the entire democratic process.

Accountability for politicians. It isn't hard to understand.

It would also be remarkably simple to implement.
Posted by Pericles, Monday, 9 March 2009 8:36:48 AM
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In administrative law, we have "accountability" - in the parliamentary process this takes the form of senate committees, various tribunals, and the activities of the Auditor General and the like. In short, the accountability rests with those involved in the "system" in short, the people in the system are the ones investigating the system. How many of us have voted in a "local member" believing that they would properly represent the issues that were important to us, only to see the blind allegiance to the "party line"? We are fundamentally ripped off at every election really. Performance-based pay for politicians,anyone?
Posted by Penny01, Monday, 9 March 2009 10:48:48 PM
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