Alliance says right-wing politicians extravagant spending hypocritical

Alliance Party media release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sunday 2 August 2009

The Alliance Party says there is a culture of entitlement in New Zealand - amongst right wing politicians.

ACT MP Sir Roger Douglas believes it his entitlement to be flown around the world on the taxpayer to visit his family. Deputy Prime Minister Bill English is paid nearly $1000 a week on top of his salary for an "accommodation allowance" for a house owned by his family trust in Wellington.

Neither see any hypocrisy or irony in their extravagant expenditure while demanding that ordinary New Zealanders, many struggling on low incomes, live within far more modest means.

Alliance Party spokesperson Paul Piesse says if state spending needs to be curtailed the obvious place to start would be with the excessive privileges of politicians.

He says in addition to the excessive privileges, the income of politicians and highest salary earners have been generously pushed up by National and Labour's tax cuts, whereas those on low incomes and beneficiaries have seen their incomes stagnate and effectively shrink as the cost of essentials such as food, power and accommodation reaches record heights.

"Forget the idea of us all being in this together, because the self serving political and corporate class ensure they get silver service while the majority struggle on."

"It would be laughable if the same people weren't attacking public sector workers and lacked any intention to deal with the unemployment crisis."

At the moment MPs elected to Parliament before 1993 and who served three terms receive a discount of 90 per cent on their international airfares for the rest of their life.

Mr Piesse says it is astounding that the man who invented ‘user pays’, Sir Roger Douglas, sees no problem with dipping into the public purse to pay for private trips for himself and his family.

"Clearly leading by example is not his style."

Mr Piesse says MPs need to have an understanding of how their policies effect the majority of people, and if they are insulated by their wealth from the normal experience then they could not successfully represent the people.

"If they have any integrity they will bring their entitlements into line with public expectations."

He says this would be a basic gesture in the current economic crisis which is seeing hundreds of New Zealanders losing their jobs every week through cuts to the public service and private industry.

Alliance Party MP Pay and Conditions Policy

Preamble

MPs are supposed to represent the whole nation and yet their pay and conditions put them in the top 1% of income earners (not including any other business income they may have). Their pay rates, and particularly the way they are set and conditions changed by MPs themselves, is a source of anger and resentment in the community.

We stand for the following policies:

The Alliance in Parliament would push for MPs’ pay to be linked directly to the top of the basic scale for primary and secondary teachers with a 3-year degree and 1 year of teacher training.

This is not supposed to be a fair reflection of the responsibilities and workload of MPs, which would undoubtedly result in pay rates as high, or even higher than currently paid. Rather it is a reflection of the special role they have in our society and the need for our representatives to have an awareness of the people’s everyday lives and existence.

The link has some historical significance as senior teachers and MPs were paid the same rate in 1979. Since then MPs’ pay increases have effectively doubled that of teachers.

There are undoubtedly additional costs to being an MP. An obvious one is childcare, as MPs are required to work away from home on a regular basis. Where exceptional costs are identified, then MPs should be fully reimbursed for these costs. Consideration should also be given to other conditions which can be improved to allow MPs more time with their families.

The Alliance will advocate for this policy to be implemented for all MPs.

Alliance MPs’ salaries will be subject to both this policy and to the Alliance income taxation policy from the time of their election to Parliament.

Alliance candidates will commit before selection to pledging their parliamentary salary above the amount advocated by Alliance policy to the party campaign fund under the control of the Alliance Council. They will sign a pledge acknowledging that failure to do so will amount to resignation from the party and from Parliament.

Other MP conditions

Remove all ex-MP travel subsidies.
Remove pay differentials for Ministers – one pay rate for all MPs.

MP pay and conditions (including allowances) to be consistent with tax rules applied to all other New Zealanders.
Review of MP working hours and condition to allow more time to be spent with families.

Review MPs’ superannuation scheme, so that the employers’ contributions are reduced to the level of the former Government Superannuation Fund.

ENDS

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