The Tasmanian Greens today (Thurs) sought to amend Labor’s Parliamentary Salaries, Superannuation and Allowances Amendment Bill 2011 to prevent any of the automatic flow-on pay increase being delivered to State Parliamentarians.

Greens Leader Nick McKim MP said it was disappointing both Labor and the Liberals joined to defeat the Greens’ amendment that would have ensured that no State MPs received the pay increase, which the Greens consider to be inappropriate given the budget challenges and financial constraints the community is expected to face.

Mr McKim also said that the Greens had voted against the Liberal amendment, which accepted Labor’s two per cent pay increase cap and extended that cap for four years, as the Greens preferred position is that there be no pay increase at all, but Labor and the Liberals had the numbers to push through the capped pay increase of two per cent for the next four years.

“It is very hard to justify any increase in MPs pay at a time when many Tasmanians are being urged to tighten their belts and accept serious cost-savings measures coming down the line,” Mr McKim said.

“The House of Assembly had the opportunity today to legislate for State MPs to forego in full the automatic flow-on pay increase which will come into affect on the 1st of July, and it is disappointing that Labor and Liberals used their numbers to defeat the Greens’ move.”

“We have been consistently on the public record that in power-sharing parliaments not any one party can expect to get its own way all of the time, and clearly the Greens stood alone when trying to ensure there was no MPs Pay increase.”

“Instead the combined efforts of Labor and Liberal have passed a reduced increase of two per cent capped for the next four years. The Greens’ position is to have no pay increase, but it does need to be acknowledged that at least the passed Bill does introduce a pay cap.”

“The Greens have a long held policy position that Parliamentarians do not directly set their own salary, whether to increase or decrease it, and therefore we requested initially that this matter be referred to an independent body. In the absence of that, we believe the next best mechanism was to amend the Bill introduced by the Premier,” Mr McKim said.
Nick McKim MP Greens Leader