Editor Lyndon Keane says it’s a slap in the face of the electorate that ousted MPs like Labor’s Cynthia Lui will receive a “transition allowance” of more than $42,000 after being voted out of their job by their employers, the people of Queensland. Photo: Facebook.
If your employer deemed you unfit to continue in your role, told you so in the most emphatic, public way possible, but then wrote you a cheque equivalent to half the current national average income on your way out the door, I’m going to suggest you’d think all your Christmases had come at once.
The news the 15 former MPs who lost their seats when Queensland had its say on 26 October would be receiving a “transition allowance” equal to 12 weeks’ pay has angered many parts of the community, and rightly so.
With the current base salary for MPs sitting at $183,985, the Parliamentary ruling means the ousted politicians – including two-term former Cook MP Cynthia Lui – will receive more than $42,000 after failing to convince their constituents they deserved another four years representing them.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Politicians are employed by the people by virtue of our democratic system of government. Despite what many of our egotistical political types think behind closed doors, that means being an MP is a job, with the people holding the ballot papers – in this case, Queenslanders – acting as a de facto HR department with the power to hire and fire each election cycle.
What other job allows you to go four years between performance reviews, completely ignore your employers during that period, and then demand a top-up of your bank account when they decide you’re no longer fit for purpose and that your services are no longer required?
If the owners of this publication suddenly decide I’m not the right fit for the needs and ambition of the masthead, I can guarantee you I’m not entitled to a post-sacking payout of tens of thousands of dollars to assist me with transitioning back to life in the real world. And that’s what an election loss is if you brush aside the political hyperbole – it’s a sacking at the hands of the people who trusted you to represent them. They can’t even pretend it’s some sort of redundancy payment, because that would mean an employer – us – didn’t need an employee’s job to be done by anyone. We absolutely do need it done. We just want it done by someone who is going to take us and the responsibility seriously.
How can politicians purport to understand anything about the cost of living pressures crippling Queenslanders, especially on Cape York and in the Torres Strait, if they are guaranteed a payment equal to 50 per cent of what the average Australian makes in a year for losing their $3,500-per-week job?
Our political leaders are stacking the deck to ensure they will still be rewarded for mediocrity in a big middle finger to their electorates. In fact, the Parliamentary Members’ Remuneration Handbook effectively admits it by providing outgoing MPs with the ludicrously-named transition allowance in cases where they have “retired involuntarily through loss of party pre-selection … or through defeat at an election”. Doing a sub-par job as a politician only to have your constituents give you the flick on election day? No worries, friend, here’s 12 weeks’ pay for failing to do enough to convince your electorate to return you to office. Actually, a loser allowance is probably a more apt description, since there’s no way they could call it a taking-the-piss allowance.
Sadly, former American president Abraham Lincoln’s utopic 1863 vision of a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” is not a reflection of democracy in 2024. It’s hasn’t been for decades. These days, democracy is all about parties helping parties and mates helping mates at the cost of the people.
If ousted MPs need to fill their pockets with cash in order to successfully transition back to reality after representing those of us who live in it, perhaps they weren’t the right advocates to having battling for our best interests in Parliament in the first place.
Ms Lui, pictured with Cairns MP Michael Healy and former premier Steven Miles, and 14 other former MPs will share more than $636,000 in post-politics perks after losing their seats on 26 October. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
