Wage Increase For M.P.’s Unpopular With Public

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27986, 5 June 1956, Page 14

Wage Increase For M.P.’s Unpopular With Public

AUSTRALIAN LETTER

[N.Z.P.A Australian Correspondent]

(Rec. 8 p.m.) SYDNEY, June 4. A bill giving all Federal Parliamentarians (senators and members of the House of Representatives) an extra £l2 a week was introduced into the House of Representatives last week; it is a very unpopular measure. The .bill provides that a member of senator will receive £2350 a year from July 1. In addition, the legislation changes the allowances of members for electorate and other expenses. Senators will receive £7OO a year expenses, city members £6OO a year, and country members £BOO a year. It was no wonder that both sides of the House were coyly silent when the Prime Minister (Mr Menzies) delivered the second reading speech on the bill. His speech followed by only a few hours his tabling of the first annual economic White Paper which showed that prospects were anything but bright.

Last September Mr Menzies, in the first of his economic warnings, asked the community to exercise restraint in spending and wage claims. Deciding that it would be a good thing to set an example of self-denial to the people, the Government then asked the special salaries committee it haa set up to withhold its report until the end of this financial year, June 30. However, the committee decided that this was not its job and handed the report to Mr Menzies towards the end of last year. The report was tabled last month, and it recommended the rise of £6OO a year. Unfortunately for the Government, the economic situation in Australia has not improved in the last nine months. “If there was reason last September to set an example of restraint, there is more reason now,” says the “Sydney Morning Herald.” “Apart from the gradual worsening of the economic situation, the public is now feeling +he ninch of the measures adopted by the Government in March to deal with economic problems.” Mr Menzies, m introducing the pay rise bill, said the increase to members was “a modest one.” The next day the four Judges of the Full Arbitration Court, in a combined judgment, said that the Federal basic wage could be increased by more than 10s a week without creating a danger of inflation and unemployment. The judges were giving their decision on an application by 25 unions, supported by the Australian Council of Trades Unions, for an increase of £1 a week in the Federal basic wage, and the restoration of quarterly adjustments. They also asked the Court to add to the wage the total cost of living increases since the quarterly adiustments were abolished in 1953. The Court rejected both requests. About 1,000,000 workers under Federal awards will have their pay increased by 10s to £l2 16s a week. One hundred and twenty Federal Par’iamentarians will get another £l2. making theib weekly salaries about £45. plus liberal expenses. * * * New South Wales has just celebrated the centenary of responsible government. Tasmania and Victoria will also do so this year. But Aus-

tralians are still dissatisfied with the position of the States as they are today. Critics are divided on what is .wrong and what should be done to pul it right. Only the extreme centralists, who regard the States as an anachronism and would hand over all powers to the Federal Government, are certain, and even they differ as to whether the States should be allowed to wither slowly on the branch or whether the whole tree should be cut down at one blow.

Ardent champions of the States are equally dissatisfied—and divided. Either they feel'that there should be more States than there are or that the existing frontiers should be redrawn in a more logical way. There is now a new ground for criticism in the failure of Parliamentary Government in the States. One-party government is becoming the rule, with only Victoria and Western Australia providing exceptions to it. One party has ruled in Queensland for 24 years, in South Australia tor 23 years, in Tasmania for 21 years, and in New South Wales for 15 years.

Australians must attack at once with traps, guns, dogs and poison to kill the rabbits being left behind as myxomatosis loses its power. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation has given this warning, adding: “This is a rallying cry. We are at the eleventh hour.”

The Minister in charge of the organisation (Mr R. G. Casey) said m Canberra that the rabbit menace was increasing. Killing by myxomatosis had fallen from more than 90 per cent, to about 50 per. cent, in most areas.

Leading Australian hire-purchase finance companies have decided to take care of the man or woman who worries himself or herself sick over the payments on a car, or a new refrigerator or washing machine. They will give free insurance against illness. In cases of death they will cancel the unpaid instalments on the articles.

These inducements are part of the competitive war caused by the fall in hire-purchase business in Australia—particularly in car sales. The companies are willing to shoulder extra expense to woo hesitant buyers. They call it a payments protection plan. The illness or accident must be sufficiently serious to keep the claimant away from work with the concurrence of a doctor. In the case of an accident, benefits are immediate. But for illness, the insurance cover cannot be claimed until three months after the date of the agreement. Payments are calculated on a daily basis. If a hirer is certified as being unable to go to work for 20 days, he is entitled to claim for twenty-thir-tieths of his monthly instalment payment.

Claims cannot be made for disablement resulting from injuries received from football, motor-cycling, polo, racing, or professional boxing and wrestling, nor for an accident while under the influence of liquor. * * * A fall in home building in Australia has led to keener competition among builders for whatever work is available. The Department of National Development says this in a review of building trends. Official figures show that 17.030 houses were built in the first three months of this year, compared with 20.000 in the previous three months. Housing costs have fisen 10 per cent, since the end of 1954.