2014: The age of entitlements (for some)
Recently we have heard a great deal about how average Australians must face the end of their “age of entitlement”. It seems however some believe the captain won’t be going down with the ship.
The following email is doing the rounds and we thought you might be interested…We certainly find the idea that politicians eat some of their own cooking appealing. Combining some of the below suggestions without a much higher salary however may fail to attract candidates with the requisite abilities to manage finances, run departments and manage projects. With 28 cabinet seats of which 22 are manned by career politicians and the remainder dominated by lawyers the current system may not be attracting the most qualified individuals – another incentive to make the change perhaps?
“Proposals to make politicians and bureaucrats shoulder their share of the weight now that the Age of Entitlement is over:
1. Scrap political pensions.
Politicians can purchase their own retirement plan, just as most other working Australians are expected to do.
2. Retired politicians (past, present & future) participate in Centrelink.
A Politician collects a substantial salary while in office but should receive no salary when they’re out of office.
Terminated politicians under 70 can go get a job or apply for Centrelink unemployment benefits like ordinary Australians.
Terminated politicians under 70 can negotiate with Centrelink like the rest of the Australian people.
3. Funds already allocated to the Politicians’ retirement fund be returned immediately to Consolidated Revenue.
This money is to be used to pay down debt they created which they expect us and our grandchildren to repay for them.
4. Politicians will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Politicians pay will rise by the lower of, either the CPI or 3%.
5. Politicians lose their privileged health care system and participate in the same health care system as ordinary Australian people.
i.e. Politicians either pay for private cover from their own funds or accept ordinary Medicare.
6. Politicians must equally abide by all laws they impose on the Australian people.
7. All contracts with past and present Politicians men/women are void effective 31/12/14.
The Australian people did not agree to provide perks to Politicians, that burden was thrust upon them.
Politicians devised all these contracts to benefit themselves.
Serving in Parliament is an honour not a career.
The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so our politicians should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.”
Roger Montgomery is the Founder and Chairman of Montgomery Investment Management. Roger has over three decades of experience in funds management and related activities, including equities analysis, equity and derivatives strategy, trading and stockbroking. Prior to establishing Montgomery, Roger held positions at Ord Minnett Jardine Fleming, BT (Australia) Limited and Merrill Lynch.
This post was contributed by a representative of Montgomery Investment Management Pty Limited (AFSL No. 354564). The principal purpose of this post is to provide factual information and not provide financial product advice. Additionally, the information provided is not intended to provide any recommendation or opinion about any financial product. Any commentary and statements of opinion however may contain general advice only that is prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial circumstances or needs. Because of this, before acting on any of the information provided, you should always consider its appropriateness in light of your personal objectives, financial circumstances and needs and should consider seeking independent advice from a financial advisor if necessary before making any decisions. This post specifically excludes personal advice.
trev-ffrench
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Oh and .. the original is actually from 2010.. a document called “The Congressional Reform Act 2010” from Ted, White, and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto, by Ted Nugent.
trev-ffrench
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Would be nice if this was original. The thoughts might be nice, but the document is completely plagiarised (and then amended to sound Aussie) from a US document from 2012, which can be found here:
https://www.change.org/p/the-founding-fathers-envisioned-citizen-legislators
The term “Founding Fathers”got me wondering who the Author was. Its just spam. Political Spam .. its not saying who to vote for, it’s just out there to get people riled up about something.
Roger Montgomery
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Good to know Trev. Thanks. Nevertheless we thought there was some merit in the sentiments.
Colin Petersen
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Politician pay is actually less of a problem than public service pay; i) it’s too high and ii) there are a lot more of us (I am one) than there are politicians.
I remember a newspaper article during Gillard’s era stating that there were 230 public servants earning more than the Prime Minister; irrepsective of my opinion of the competence of the PM, I don’t think any public servant should earn more than him.
garry peck
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It has always been a different set of rules on an uneven playing field for Pollies vs the constituent, hence the disdain and little respect and trust we have for them.
Roger Montgomery
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But in theory the constituency has elected their representative, who in turn represent them.
Asher Jebbink
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Because voting is compulsory?
Roger Montgomery
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Perhaps a lack of sufficiently capable alternatives
jimitoshu
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The key word is capable.
Capable of correcting the portfolio is one thing. Plenty out there that can do this job.
However … Capable of dealing with verbal garbage and political back stabbing and fundraising with influential groups stuffed with cash with intent to protect monopoly/Duopoly … (excluding Bruce Wayne)
Perhaps being a politician requires a dark knight…
If so, yes we’re lacking.
Peter Harris
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The Government will spend almost $14 billion in the next four years on fossil fuel subsidies to the mining industry.
Most Australians pay excise on their fuel of 38c a litre.
Mining companies only pay 6c a litre.
This scheme distorts the market; encouraging the profligate use of fossil fuels.
David
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That is a good start Rodger. Australia is definitely over governed.
I never understood why …..
1. the ACT needed it’s own “state” government.
2. QLD can operate with only one chamber, but all other states need two chambers to operate.
3. Local government has not been consolidated/amalgamated into much larger areas
Asher Jebbink
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Re: point 6 – Politicians must equally abide by all laws they impose on the Australian people.
What’s that saying about the current state of affairs…
Hayden Bunyan
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Clive Palmer??
Donate your salary and use your own car, what a great idea.
I wish the others would do the same.
Aren’t they just lobbyist for their ‘mates’??
I’m sure Malcom can survive on risk free return from his commented 150 million asset backing.
I Don’t know but I think anyone from your team roger can do a much better job than the current mob.
Cheers,
Hayden
jimitoshu
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Clive is not a good example of a politician, his enemies are numerous from the business side.
But going back to topic. I believe there is a solution to eliminate conflict of interest in politics.
Just like an employee has stock allocation, and it’s frozen for 3yrs. Likewise the pension of a politician has allocation of non-renouncable stock(not rights) allocation that pays a coupon.
This stock or financial instrument, is tied into GDP or happiness or tax revenue or sustainable living targets or a meaningful set of attributes that promote good economic guidance.
The idea then is, after their term in the office, they would get paid more if they had done a good job securing the future of Australia.
The current system is just a free handout.