06-05-2024, 12:12 PM
The challenge with setting MP pay is to make it enough so as to not turn away decent quality candidates, but no so much so as have people doing it for the money. But that is impossible to do really, as a smart motivated person with a decent amount of experience and expertise can easily earn more than an MP salary elsewhere, whereas it is also way more than a fair chunk of our current MPs could have ever dreamed of earning.
As to whether or not they should accept the pay-rise, rank-and-file MPs have no say in their salaries and can't turn down the pay-rise, although there is nothing to stop them from donating the extra. Although Luxon isn't really supposed to (as it is meant to be set by an independent authority), he evidently could reject the pay-rise just like Ardern did. However, he's between a bit of rock & a hard place as it isn't a great look for him to be saying "we don't need pay-rises" when he's on $450K+ and standard MPs are on $170K-ish. When Ardern instigated the pay-freeze, there was strong bi-lateral support (Seymour was arguably the one that first tabled the idea), whereas I feel like most MPs have been fairly silent on the matter this time around.
I think the best option is to keep the independent authority independent, and then any MPs that feel overpaid can donate the excess.
As to whether or not they should accept the pay-rise, rank-and-file MPs have no say in their salaries and can't turn down the pay-rise, although there is nothing to stop them from donating the extra. Although Luxon isn't really supposed to (as it is meant to be set by an independent authority), he evidently could reject the pay-rise just like Ardern did. However, he's between a bit of rock & a hard place as it isn't a great look for him to be saying "we don't need pay-rises" when he's on $450K+ and standard MPs are on $170K-ish. When Ardern instigated the pay-freeze, there was strong bi-lateral support (Seymour was arguably the one that first tabled the idea), whereas I feel like most MPs have been fairly silent on the matter this time around.
I think the best option is to keep the independent authority independent, and then any MPs that feel overpaid can donate the excess.