The Tasmanian Greens remain the only political party who have consistently backed a freeze on State MPs’ pay in recognition of the challenging fiscal situation facing the state, and continue to do so in light of the report handed down by the Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Tribunal.
“Since 2011, when the state budget position became clear, the Greens argued for an interim freeze on State MPs pay, but our move at the time was defeated by both the Liberal and Labor parties, who now belatedly have adopted our position,” Greens Leader Kim Booth MP said.
“It is because neither Labor nor Liberal would support our preferred option for a freeze in 2012, that we ended up with the current measures that link MPs’ salary with the state service award with the flow on capped two per cent pay increase.”
“While the interim MPs pay freeze is welcome, a decision on the long term solution to future adjustments is still needed.”
“A key task set the Tribunal was to examine appropriate future salary adjustment mechanisms, as we need to ensure that MPs are not directly involved in setting their pay or remuneration.”
“The Tribunal has provided a detailed report which makes recommendations regarding basic salary, future review mechanisms and a range of other matters, all of which the Greens MPs will examine closely,” Mr Booth said.