Payment of Members

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 286, 29 August 1931, Page 9

Payment of Members

Sir, —The other day a prominent member of our Parliament stated that members are under-paid. It has been said scores of times that it is not what we pay for but what we get for what we pay that matters. Now what do we get for the many thousands of pounds that the country pays to its representatives in Parliament? All that we have got of late years through giving generous salaries to our swarm of politicians ar.e debts and disaster. No body or party is without responsibility. Reform, United. La-bour-7-they are all guilty. The warnings of the Press, of bankers, and of economists were alike ignored; borrowing millions every year, much of it going in utter waste, such as State coal mines. State steamers. State railways, education, hostels, hermitages, and chateaux. Until now we look like being up against it. New Zealand has given its system of payment of members a fair trial, and the results ar.e shocking. The country hoped to get for its money a trained body of men, skilled in making wise laws and intent on seeing that the people receive the worth of every pound voted. Instead it has been loaded with an incompetent crowd of windbags and vote-hunters, for the most part, whose legislative performances are constantly jeered at. and who are not only incompetent, but selfishlydetermined not to share the sacrifices if they can help it. There are exceptions, of course, but they are regrettably few. A Minister has a full-time job. and should be paid accordingly. But a member has no right to a salary for hanging round a closed Parliament for seven or eight months in the year. All he is entitled to is a sessional allowance, with deductions for non-attendance: and that is all he gets in Canada and other countries. If he likes to make it suffice for the whole twelve months, that is his own look-out, but if he wants more he should be prepared to work for it. Every year tens of thousands of pounds are paid in salaries of members, and thousands of pounds are paid in reporting their utterances. 90 per cent, of which is not worth reporting. No; salaries to members should be cut by two-thirds, and the number of members to one-third, the Post-master-General’s argument notwithstanding.—I am. etc.. JUNIUS JUNIOR. August 26.