Parliamentary Pay

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31835, 13 November 1968, Page 16

Parliamentary Pay

Sir, —“Observer” has my complete support. I have before me the list of Parliamentary salary increases as published in “The Press.” To say the least, 1 was astonished, especially so as I was not previously aware of members’ incomes. To me the figures were a revelation. True, members are elected, but may 1 ask what special qualifications, with perhaps few exceptions, they have to warrant these increases? Their present salaries, surely, are far more than sufficient. Like everyone else, their business in life is to serve. Is it any wonder that certain sections of the community are dissatisfied, for example, the staffs at our universities? —Yours, 1 etc DISGUSTED. November 12, 1968.

Sir, —As no computer, even drably communist, is ever likely to produce an absolutely perfect equation of the cost of living, “Pensioner" cannot expect to equalise ibe income complaint of a member of Parliament with that of a pensioner.—Yours, etc., A. B. CEDARIAN. I November 12, 1968.

Sir,—A. B. Cedarian is (surely trying to be funny i when he criticises “Ob- | server’s” protests at Parlia- . mentary salary increases. : Would A. B. Cedarian consider it funny if he found ! himself in the positon of 'he i married pensioner couple who have just received be-j ( tween them the niggardly 852 ■ increase per annum (not I made retrospective to April) while Cabinet members who; i denounced wage increases as ; inflation have seen fit to in- 1 | date their own salaries by i j hundreds of dollars, plus all | the pluses, on top of salaries two and three times as high as the allowable income fot ! a pensioner couple. Let him remember that the lower-! income groups will have 10l pay more taxation to find the | increased Parliamentary sal-1 aries. And that is not funny, i either.—Yours, etc., PROTESTING ' PENSIONER. November 12, 1968.

Sir, —So Sir Leslie Munro just cannot live on his present allowance! 1 am sorry for him: I am having the same struggle on my widow’s pension and no extras for travelling.—Yours, etc., ANOTHER PENSIONER. November 12, 1968.

Sir, —In reply to “A. B. Cedarian,” who admires Mr Muldoon and his calibre foi accepting the 71 per cent rise in salaries and considers it very funny that Mr Cracknell, leader of the Social Credit Party, should be the only one to refuse to accept this increase but the next election is the testing time and Mr Cracknell has given Social Credit the greatest boost it has ever had as the people of New Zealand are getting sick of the National Party’- policy of trying under the old orthodox systems of borrowing their way out of debt as the figures for the first half of this financial year show when we paid SBom for servicing our national debt never mentioned these days by Mr Muldoon. “A. B. Cedarian” must remember that money is the root of all evil and the National policy of borrow or bust can never get us out of our present financial position and more so since the world banking system has got every country well sewn up including New Zealand.—Yours, etc., SOCIAL CREDIT. November 12, 1968.