PARLIAMENT

Southland Times, Issue 20614, 12 October 1928, Page 8

PARLIAMENT

POSITION OF MEMBERS SALARIES AND SUPERANNUATION STATEMENT BY T. K. SIDEY (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, October 11. The following statement was issued tonight by Mr T. K. Sidey, M.P., on the subject of members’ salaries and superannuation: “During this Parliament I have acted as chairman of the committee which has considered the question of members’ salaries and superannuation. As I am now no longer seeking re-election I can now speak on this subject with greater freedom and from a disinterested point of view. The honorarium for many years took the form of a sessional allowance. It was assumed that members had other sources of income and had private work to do during recess. It is now a salary and there is an ever increasing number of members for whom the honorarium is their only means of livelihood. Following .are some of the considerations bearing on this question: (1) The work of a member of Parliament does not end with the session. His work is never done. He is always at the beck and call of his constituents. He has a never ending correspondence. He has frequent calls to attend public functions and he must give consideration to many questions likely to come before the House. (2) Every three years he has to contest an election. The legislature contemplated expenditure for this purpose of £2OO, which was based on pre-war values. When indirect expenses are taken into account it costs many members much more than that. (3) He has to live in Wellington for from four to even six months and in most cases has to maintain his home in another part of the Dominion at the same time. (4) He has to meet many claims for public and private subscriptions. (5) His duties involve travelling expenses, more or less depending on the constituency he represents. “When all these considerations are taken into account it will be recognized that £450 is quite inadequate as a salary and is not to be compared with the salary of similar amount paid to an officer of the Public Service. There is only one Australian State that does not pay its members more than they are paid in New Zealand and that is South Australia, whose population is not more than 500,000. Tasmania, whose population is not 25,000, pays some of its members more and some less. The salaries range from £370 to £5OO. In New South Wales salaries are £875. New Zealand, as a Dominion, occupies a higher status than any of the Australian States. On the question of superannuation for members of the House of Representatives, the scheme was worked out under which by an annual payment of £lOO, a retiring allowance of £l5O might be granted to a member who has served for three Parliaments or nine years, the amount to be increased by £25 for each additional Parliament and rising to a maximum of £250 for service in seven or more Parliaments. An interesting feature of actuarial calculations in this connection was that the political mortality of a member of Parliament decreased as his number of Parliaments increased, his greatest chance of political extinction being after his first Parliament. One of the objections raised during the expiring Parliament to giving effect to proposals for an increase of salaries or superannuation, was that these questions were not before the country at the last election. My object in drawing public attention to them now is that they may not be lost sight of during the approaching elections and that the above objection may not be available in the new Parliament to which members may be returned, having expressed themselves definitely on these questions during the campaign now in progress.”