MEMBERS’ SALARIES

Hokitika Guardian, 28 November 1933, Page 6

MEMBERS’ SALARIES

POSSIBLE REQUEST FOR BONUS

EXPENSE OF ATTENDING TWO SESSIONS.

WELLINGTON,. November 26

Several members of Parliament, it is reported, are considering urging on the Government, that they should be paid a bonus in addition to their salary for the current year. This year, as in 1931, they h a ve had to .attend two sessions, and there is every prospect that two sessions will be necessary again in 1934. They claim that these special sittings have imposed ■an additional financial burden on them, while at the same time their salaries have been reduced in the last two years by two successive 10 per cent. cut s t 0 £365. They realise that public opinion would be against any permanent increase in this amount until the wage reductions imposed on civil servants had been restored,’ but they feel that they .are entitled to some special aid, in view of the long sit.ings iu Wellington, which have been necessitated during the last two years, on account' iof the country’s emergency. The t movement has n ot yet spread among members generally, 'and it is difficult to say how it will be received.

BONUS IN 1929,

There was considerable .public resentment when the House of Representatives voted each of its members a.' bonus of £IOO, in the Appropria-,: tiou Bill, at the end of 1929. This bonus was agreed to by the Government in response to representations made by a deputation of the three parties in the House, Speaking on ithe bill, the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes. who w„t!s. "then the acting-leader tof the House, said that the bonus was, “in recognition of the very heavy claims that '.have been made on members after a very expensive election. ’■ Nowadays, he said, elections were more expensive than before, and as time went on these expenses were increasing. There was a big and continuous demand on the financial resources of a .member of Parliament, including travelling expenses in his own electorate, and to and from Wellington, the peeping of two homes, and the many calls for charity and local organisations. The then Minister for Education (Mr It. Atmore) said that 75 per cent, of the members of Parliament for the last 20 years had known that their pay was insufficient, hut they had lacked the courage to increase it. Sir Thomas Wilford. Minister for Justice, reported the following interesting analvsis of members’ accounts; One half of his salary, amottfUing to £4 6s .a week,, was left with hi s wife and family, and of that £2 a week had to be p-.icl for rent ; the remainder of £2 6s a week would be left to support his family while he was in- Wellington for four or five months of the year; with the other £4 odd a week ho had t 0 pay his (subscriptions and other calls on 'him: and to. keep himself .respectably dressed. “Tt cannot be done,” said! Sir Thomas, adding that it was a stigma on the House that members’ salaries had not been raised long before., AUSTRALIAN SALARIES.

Since 1929 members of the House of Representatives have suffered two reduction in their salaries, each oi 10 per cent. For many years before 1920 they were paid £3OO a year. •In that year the amount was increased to £SOO, but it was reduced by 10 per icent. in 1922, by another 10 per cent, in 1932, and a third 10 per cent, last year, making in the aggregate a reduction of £135. Members of the New Zealand Legislature to-day are among the lowest paid Parliamentarians in the . British Empire. They receive lower salaries than the members of all the ,Australian State Parliaments, with the exception of South Australia and Tasmania. Members of the Lower House in New South Wales receive £706 a year, in Victoria £402 a year, ■ in Queensland £SOO a year, and in West Australia £4BO a year. Member,-, of the. Australian Federal Parliament have recently raised a protest by increasing their■ salaries from £BOO to £875 a year, ■and the public reception given to this move, if nothing else, is likely to deter .members of the 'New Zealand Parliament from voting themselves any similar* increase, however much they may consider they deserve it. A bonus, in view of the special circumstances, is a somewhat different matter, however, and it ig, possible that the Government may be persuaded to take action in this direction before the end of the present session.

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