The Green Party wants real constraints on MPs’ pay, not hurried superficial changes that continue large annual pay rises for MPs.
“The Government has tabled yet more changes to MPs’ pay today, without consulting with the public or even giving other political parties time to consider the proposals,” said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei.
“We oppose this latest change, because we are not convinced that it provides a fairer way to set MPs’ pay.
“What’s needed is a completely different approach, such as pegging MPs’ pay to movements in the nominal median income.
“Instead, the Government is scrambling to pretend that its making a meaningful change to MPs’ pay, without really making a difference at all.
“It’s dishonest to pretend that this will fix the problem. How much would MPs’ pay have risen under the Government’s latest new proposal, if it had been in place for the last few years?
“It appears that it could be much the same as the status quo.
“The Green Party’s policy is to tie MPs’ pay to movements in the nominal median income. If the median income goes up by $100, so would MPs’ pay go up by $100. That’s fair and transparent.
“Our policy would have resulted in a total base salary increase of just $4,276 since 2007/08, rather than the $29,800 rise under the current system over this time.
“We’ve also tabled another proposal that would link MPs’ pay to the Labour Cost Index rather than the Quarterly Employment Survey, because we think the LCI is a fairer measurement of actual income in the public service,” Mrs Turei said.
