PAYMENT OF MEMBERS

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1928, Page 11

PAYMENT OF MEMBERS

SALARIES INSUFFICIENT COMPARISON WITH AUSTRALIA MR. SIDEY STATES POSITION. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Lasfr Night. The following statement was issued to-night by Mr. T. K. Sidey, M.P., on the subject of members’ salaries and superannuation:— “During this Parliament I have acted as chairman of a 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 then assumed that members had other sources of income and had private work to do during the recess. It is now a salary, and there is an ever increasing number of members for whom the Parliamentary honorarium is their only means of livelihood.

“The following are some of the considerations bearing on this question:— (1) The work of a member of Parlyxment does not end with the session. His work is never done. He is always at the beck and call of his constituents and he has never-ending correspondence. He has frequent calle 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 an expenditure for this purpose of £2OO based on prewar 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 hasto maintain his home in another part of the Dominion at tlie 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 recognised that £450 is quite inadequate as a salary, and is not to be compared with a salary of a 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 half a million. Tasmania, whose population is not a quarter of a million, pays some of its members more and some less. There salaries range from £370 to £5OO. x 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, a 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 ta 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 the 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 extinct, i being after his first Parliament. Une of the objections raised during tho expiring Parliament to giving effect to the 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.”