Bring Politicians Into Line With All Australians

To the Honourable President and members of the Senate in Parliament assembled:

We the undersigned are asking that the Australian Senate & the Australian Federal Government review legislation to enact the following:

A. The current pension arrangements, compensation plans and the method of pay rises via the remuneration Tribunal be ceased immediately.

B. The remuneration Tribunal be disbanded immediately and MPs pay rises be based on the percentage of CPI, MTAWE or other measure as is currently legislated for pensioners and income recipients the subject of Centrelink payments.

C. In relation to previous Prime Ministers and retired politicians, apart from their revised pension, all financial assistance, all transport including air travel, staffing any security arrangements no longer be paid for by the taxpayer.

D. All previous politicians pensions are to be means tested exactly the same as the done to old age pensioners and others. The assets test is to include residences, spouse’s assets, any company in which they have interests and also income from any board of which that retired politician is a member. The current superannuation structure for elected politicians be disbanded immediately and elected politicians contribute to their superannuation as detailed in the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 . Access to these pensions are to be the same as access current for all old age pensioners and subject to the same conditions. The assets and net worth of all politicians are to be made public.

E. Lobbying in all form is the made illegal as should the acceptance of any gifts regardless of the value.

F. Any promise broken by any politician is to result in the member’s seat to be declared vacant and a by-election held to fill such vacancy.

G. The process of political being paid for each vote received by ceased immediately. Donations to any political party (including hidden companies) are to be made public regardless of the amount donated.

H. The government is to introduce citizens initiated referendums. All petitions with over 500,000 MUST go to a referendum which must be held within six months of such successful petition being lodged.

Reasoning

a. The government is currently desperately seeking ways to reduce the current debt however at no stage have they looked within their own members both past and present. The obscene pensions paid to past politicians, especially Prime Ministers, would be a very good place to start. I have no doubt that the majority of Australians will agree with this. This link may be an eye-opener for many Australians: http://www.smh.com.au/national/full-list-of-federal-mps-entitlements-20090521-bh0v.html As will this one from the Pickering Post: http://pickeringpost.com/story/don-t-shoot-joe-hockey/3102 . I don't think anymore explanation is needed. Nobody forced these people to become politicians. As far as I can see they do it for the power, the ego, the lurks and perks especially upon retirement but in the same token, no doubt there are some of them who came in hoping to make change for the good. It’s quite obvious from the NSW ICAC revelations that many would be politicians have stooped to any level just to get themselves elected – apparently they believe that it’s a really good lurk to be a politician with all the benefits afterwards.

b. Three members make up the Re-numeration Tribunal. The current rates of pay for them are:

(a) for the President-$87 343 per year;
(b) for other members-$42 250 per year.

You can check out who the members are at: http://www.remtribunal.gov.au/about-us for. As you will observe they are all on other boards for which I am sure that more than adequately overpaid. If politicians pay raises are subject to paragraph (B) above then there will be no need for this tribunal.

c. Large companies do not continue to contribute to past employees and basically all government is basically a very large company. It seems that most politicians when they leave parliament slide into various positions on various boards, get a job via the old boys’ network, write books and generally make a nuisance of themselves lecturing - usually at some obscene rate of pay. There's no reason whatsoever why the taxpayer should continue to providing these lurks and perks. Currently, taxpayers are supporting seven (7) former Prime Ministers.

d. Is quite well known in the there are some very rich retired politicians out there yet they continue to claim the full rate of pension to the best of my knowledge. As stated previously, some they employed by the various boards and rake in further income. All people on pensioners should be treated equally.

e. Corruption of politicians has been going on for years and has been highlighted very recently and the best way to reduce temptation is the ban all the lobbying. Even small gifts should be banned as we have seen recently the results of receiving a bottle of wine. Banned – not just regulated.

f. I believe that all Australians are well and truly fed up with politicians making promises to get themselves elected and then breaking those promises. There is no such thing as core and non-core promises and all politicians should be held to their word.

g. Taxpayers should not pay anything whatsoever for political parties to fund election campaigns. Parties are to fund themselves from their own resources. The penalty for hidden slush funds should be such as to deter this practice and violators jailed.

h. All politicians claim that if we do not like something we can change it at the next election. They know and we know that this is a complete fallacy. Politicians do what the party tells them to do. There are many times that we have needed the citizens initiated referendum. A few examples which bring to mind are the planned paid parental leave (unaffordable to businesses and will result in employers not hiring females), the problem with the people illegally arriving by boat, the purchase of F35 planes which still aren’t flyable (cheaper and more suitable aircraft to Australian needs are available) and this petition should all become subject to a referendum.