THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1947. PARLIAMENTARY PENSIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26619, 15 November 1947, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1947. PARLIAMENTARY PENSIONS

As a parliamentary session draws to its end the more cynicallyinclined observer waits to see what unpleasant surprise for the electorate will be included in the final rush of legislation. In recent years this attitude has been justified by events to a degree which removes the stigma of cynicism from such anticipations. The present session is no exception, for it is doubtful if there will yet be announced a more unpleasant surprise than that which the Government has prepared by including—ostensibly as a minor matter—a clause in the Superannuation Bill providing for the establishment of a generous pension scheme for members of Parliament. The scheme is objectionable in its details and in the manner of its presentation. It has been announced without warning, and there is little time for the public to express its opinion either directly to its representatives -or through the press before it will become law. There is no time for members themselves to study the proposal in as disinterested a manner as they might, or for the Opposition to express its disapproval in the unequivocal manner it should. But even though criticism will be too late to be other than unavailing, this is no reason why the complacency of the parliamentary Jack Horners responsible for the proposal should pass undisturbed. In December, 1945, a select committee was set up to report upon a superannuation scheme for members. Its report was not made until August of the following year and then it was a formal document, its conclusions being framed in less than one hundred words. It recommended that “a contributing superannuation schem§ ” should be introduced in the first session of the next Parliament. During the election campaign the National Party made such a proposal one of its platform planks, no doubt with the .intention that such legislation should be separately and fully considered. The Government, however, has studiously avoided reference to the subject until this late hour. The State has not been ungenerous in the past to its elected representatives, but there can be little objection tb the principle of a superannuation scheme providing that it is on an adequate contributory basis. Such a basis is conspicuously lacking. It is undesirahle that parliamentary pensions should be on so generous a scale as to attract as political aspirants those who could hope to win such a competence in no other fashion. The flagrant discrimination between the scale of “ adequate maintenance” for members of Parliament and the dole which is allowed for public servants is as unpalatable as it is obvious. Further, because so large a proportion of a member’s salary is tax-free, the contribution whith will be made to the Social Security Fund is negligible. Since the scheme must be far from self-supporting it represents a brazen attempt to levy on the .public purse. A LARGER COUNCIL The suggestion made by Cr Wright that the Dunedin City Council should be increased from twelve to sixteen ■members is not without merit, and at somp time in the future it might be opportune for the council then in office to test the opinion of citizens on the point. The Dunedin City Council controls a greater variety of trading interests than are under municipal control in any other main centre, yet its membership is the smallest. The Auckland City Council, for instance, has 21 membei’s, Wellington has 18, and Christchurch 16, and none of these bodies asks as much of its councillors as does Dunedin. The conscientious city councillor can—and often does —contribute more to the progress and welfare of the city than the parliamentarian who is elected from the municipality. Yet he works without remuneration and frequently in the obscurity of committee meetings, whereas the parliamentarian receives a generous reward for his mere attendance in the House and, it would appear, he can in future look forward to a comfortable retirement at the public expense. The principle of payment for council or committee meetings could rightly be regarded as a negation of the spirit of community service which is expected of citizens in the management of their own affairs, but any measure that might relieve councillors of some of the frequently onerous duties that devolve on them must demand serious consideration.

During the last term in office of the retiring City Council the duties of half the members were intensified by the refusal of the other half to accept responsibilities, and if this unhappy political schism is to be carried into future councils the case for a larger panel of members becomes strong indeed. Figures taken from the .council Year Book give some idea of the calls that are made upon councillors’ time. In the 1945-46 year every member of the council, with one exception, was notified of more than a hundred meetings at which his attendance was expected. Cr Jolly, as a member of six committees, attended in all 158 out of a possible 173 council and committee meetings, and five other councillors were credited with more than 100 attendances. These were the official meetings only, and when it is considered that most councillors, and committee chairmen in particular, devote a great deal of time unofficially to the affairs of the various departments, it becomes apparent that the demands made upon the city’s representatives can be exacting indeed. If the work were apportioned over a greater number of councillors it might be found that more candidates of the type required for the successful conduct of civic affairs would be prepared to offer themselves for election.