TOO MANY CLAIMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 242, 12 October 1928, Page 8

TOO MANY CLAIMS

MEMBERS’ SALARIES AND SUPERANNUATION RECONSIDERATION URGED (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 11. The following statement was issued to-night by Mr T. K. Sidey. M.Pon the subject of members’ salaries and superannuation. “During this Parliament,” begins the Matcment, “ I have acted as Chairman jf a Committee which has considered ;he question of members’ salaries and luperannuation. As lam 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 sour.os 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 honorarium is their only means of livelihood. Following are some of the considerations bearing on this question: (1) The work of the member of Parliament does not end with the session. His w/rk is never done. He is always at the beck and call of his constituents. He has never ending correspondence. He has frequent calls to attend publie functions and he must give consideration to many questions likely to come - efore the House. (2) Every three years he has to contest an election. The Legislature contemplated an expenditure for this purpose of £2OO based on pre-war values. When indirect expenses are taken into account it costs many members 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 continued Mr Sidey, “it will be recognised that £450 is quite inadequate as a salary and is not to be compared with the 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. 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 r he Australian States.

On the question of superannuation for members a House representatives scheme was worked out under 'which, by the. 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 0f.£250 for service in seven or more Parliaments. An interesting feature of the actualial calculations in this connection was that the political mortality of the member of Parliament decreased as his number of Parliaments increased, his greatest chance of political extinction being after his first Parliament.

“Or • of the objections raised during the ex ’.ring Parliament to giving effect to pr- ..sals for an increase of salaries or superannuation.” said Mr Sidey, “was that these questions were not before the country at last election.

“My object in drawing public attention to them no*.,” concluded Mr Sidey. “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. ’ ’