The Tasmanian Greens today reiterated their support for a freeze on State MPs’ pay rises for the remainder of the current parliamentary term.
Greens Leader Nick McKim said that given the current financial situation, an automatic pay rise for Tasmanian MPs in line with pay increases for federal parliamentarians would be seriously out of touch with community expectations.
“Earlier this year, the Greens wrote to the Premier calling for a pay freeze for state politicians for the rest of this Parliamentary term, and that remains our position.
“We also attempted to amend legislation in order to freeze MPs wages until the next election, but these measures were not supported by either the Labor Party or the Liberal Party.”
“The Greens believe that politicians shouldn’t be getting a pay rise while Tasmanians are doing it tough paying for power bills and transport costs.”
“Our position wasn’t supported by either Labor or Liberal who combined to vote our amendment down, and in the end we were left with a cap of 2% for 12 months.”
“Nevertheless the Greens position remains that MPs should not receive a pay rise while so many Tasmanian people are doing it so tough in meeting their day-to-day costs.”
