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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-24 Daily Xml
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PARLIAMENTARY REMUNERATION (BASIC SALARY DETERMINATIONS) AMENDMENT BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. M. PARNELL (16:32): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Parliamentary Remuneration Act 1990. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. M. PARNELL (16:33): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This is a very simple piece of legislation and is identical to a bill I introduced in this place two years ago. Basically, the bill does three main things: first, it breaks the nexus between the salaries paid to state members of parliament and the salaries paid to federal members of parliament; secondly, it provides that the South Australian Remuneration Tribunal should be the proper authority for determining the salary levels of state members of parliament; and, thirdly, it provides for any pay rise recommended by the Remuneration Tribunal not to come into effect until it has been put into a regulation, which is then able to be disallowed by either house of state parliament.

It will come as no surprise to members as to why I have reintroduced this bill now: it is because there is currently a debate occurring at the federal level for a radical reorganisation of the remuneration of members of parliament. If media reports are accurate, federal members of parliament are looking to get a substantial increase in salary of maybe $30,000 to $40,000 per year, but that will be at the expense of a reorganisation of other allowances paid to those members of parliament. As people here would be aware, our federal colleagues get a considerable amount of printing allowance. They get electorate allowances, travel allowances—they get a range of allowances that are different to the ones that we get here.

The difficulty we have in this state is that, in the absence of a thorough review of the entire package of remuneration and allowances payable to state members of parliament, we are locked in by law to receiving the sum of $2,000 less than the base rate of our federal colleagues. I think that would be regarded as unacceptable by the majority of South Australians.

We do not know exactly how the federal system will play out. We do not know what the ultimate increase in base salary will be for our federal colleagues, but we know, as soon as they do get an increase, it automatically flows on to us. So, this bill quite simply says that the base salary for state MPs is not linked to that of our federal colleagues. It is a salary that will be set by the Remuneration Tribunal here in South Australia, and members of parliament will be able to vote for or against receiving that salary, using the mechanism of disallowance of regulations.

Because the situation at the federal level is uncertain, and because we know that there will be a deal of movement some time over the next few months, I would like now to seek leave to conclude my remarks. I will conclude when we come back in the new year, by which time we will hopefully know what is happening at the federal level, and we will know whether any changes need to be made to this very simple bill that I have introduced today. I now seek leave to conclude my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

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