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The Beehive and Parliament - Source: ONE News -
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Lockwood Smith must be torn apart by all the fuss over MPs'
perks. He believes passionately that the MP's life is a fraught
one, burdened with a rare amount of stresses, strains and
separations. Yet it was he who had the courage to open MPs'
expenses and allowances to public scrutiny, which he now says is
adding to the stress of MPs' families. It must feel rather
bittersweet at this point.
Of course, this will settle down as politicians watch their
colleagues suffer and go out of their way to avoid heading down the
same (flight) path. But in the meantime, there's some sorting out
that needs to be done. And as Dr Smith is now saying that he feels
"quite a responsibility to make sure that the facts about how it
[an MP's pay] is derived are out there", he should perhaps pull
together some facts.
I find it remarkable that no-one yet has been able to put a dollar
value on a backbench MP's total salary package. They make $131,000
a year, but what about the flights, cars and other allowances that
are tacked on? (Of course, no sooner had I posted that than
Fran Mold reported an averaged salary package of
$180,000 p.a)
Back in August we asked Dr Smith on Q+A, "if we include expenses,
how much does a backbench electorate MP earn?"
He wasn't even sure about the $131,000 figure, but pointed out that
there's a $14,000 expense allowance on top of that, plus travel and
accommodation, and the latter two vary from MP to MP. But why not
crunch the numbers on that? Pull together the total packages of
each MP, or at least provide an average. If the public had a
realistic number to hang its hat on, and then could compare than to
other executives in this country, it may be instructive.
Maybe some information about the day-to-day tasks of the job would
be useful, as well. An MP's life isn't easy. They have few days off
and spend long periods away from spouses and children. But I
wouldn't go as far as Dr Smith does in playing the violin for them.
Many senior executives - and an MP has to be considered in that
class - spend a lot of time on the road with all the family
stresses that entails. Heck, many poorer New Zealanders working
three jobs don't get much time with their kids either, and they're
trying to hold families together on a fraction of a government
minister's $240,000-odd base salary. A lot of us have work
encroaching on our lives every day; just try running a small
business.
Yes, you can argue that two wrongs don't make a right, and maybe we
all need to think long and hard about our work-life balance and our
low pay. But a lot of New Zealanders will say, 'why should MPs get
special treatment?'
While most New Zealanders have lost their overtime and other
"perks" in recent years - in part thanks to the policies of Dr
Smith's own party when he was in government - MPs have retained
theirs. On or t'other needs to change.
Having said that, I think most New Zealanders want to see politics
attracting our best and brightest and recognise that those running
the country deserve to earn more than most.
The political reality is that the rules and the public's
expectation are out of whack and need to be brought back into line.
It's unfair to expect MPs to have to ignore the rules to maintain
public favour. Bill English should not have felt it necessary to do
away with all allowances, for example. (He should just explain why
he moved his home into a family trust at the time he did).
The travel allowances for long-serving MPs seem to be of particular
contention. As it stands, all sitting MPs qualify for a rising
discount on private flights after one term. But only those elected
before 1999 keep the discount after leaving Parliament. Perhaps
we've got that the wrong way round. When they're earning the big
bucks and serving the public, maybe that's not the time to be
taking the cheap flights. Maybe the discount should only kick in
once they leave parliament, as a thank you for long service.
That's just an idea. But it should be clear by now to Dr Smith and
everyone in parliament that the current system is unworkable. It
needs to be streamlined and modernised, and it needs to be done
soon.
