From July 1, the base pay for Australia’s federal MPs will increase by 3.5 percent.
This means that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s salary will go up by more than $20,000.
On the other hand, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s pay will go up by $14,617.
Before the pay raise, Albanese’s annual base salary was $585,930.
The decision by the Independent Review Tribunal (IRT) also affects the salaries of other public officials in the nation’s capital.
On Tuesday, reporters Justin Smith and Suzanne Manyyn discussed the pay raise for the country’s federal politicians on Hot Topics.
According to Smith, he doubts that the public service can provide a value of $1 million.
He noted that he recently spoke with a woman who lives in her car and has friends who are in their late 50s.
She’s not able to afford to rent because she has a lot of super, and she’s not entitled to housing assistance.
Smith and Mostyn agreed with his assessment, and they also wondered where the performance reviews of public officials are conducted.
They also wondered how public officials can determine if they’re getting value for their money.
According to Mostyn, the tribunal noted that the officials didn’t receive an increase in 2021 because of COVID.
The IRT claimed that it was a modest raise, and it was part of the tribunal’s efforts to recruit the best workers.
In response to the concerns about public officials’ salaries, the IRT noted that the modest pay raise it has given to various offices over the past decade was due to the limited resources available to carry out its work.
As a result, the cumulative total remuneration increase that the tribunal has given since 2015 amounts to around 18.25 percent.
According to the data collected by the MarchWPI from 2015 to 2024, the total remuneration of public and private sector employees increased by 24.4 percent.