FEDERAL politicians are demanding thousands of dollars more in generous travel and salary allowances in a bid to extend the gravy train, even after they are turfed out of office.
In a list of claims prepared by both Labor and Coalition MPs, politicians want to receive a more generous lump sum of up to $27,000 for the nights they are forced to spend in Canberra doing their jobs.
They are also demanding taxpayers cover the cost of helping them find a new job after voters make them redundant.
This would include a new retraining allowance, a severance payment and five months' salary.
And they want to roll the current $32,000 electorate allowance into MPs' $131,040 base salary.
The MPs' six-page submission was made to the Parliamentary Entitlements Review Committee, which is conducting a major review of parliamentary remuneration.
The Government and Coalition whips took the extraordinary step of joining forces to lobby for the generous entitlements, urging the committee to treat politicians more like everyday workers and afford them an allowance for sick and long-service leave. MPs also want the choice of accepting an electorate car or $19,500 in cash.
They suggest MPs should get entitlements equivalent to three months' salary for less than 10 years in Parliament and five months' salary for 10 or more years on the job.
MPs also believe they should be treated more like the average worker and offered a redundancy payment when they lose their jobs.
"The severance package needs to include a payment to reflect the nature of the severance in the case of parliamentarians can be seen as akin to redundancy," the submission reads.
"Such a payment would be based on the length of service provided and set to community standards."
MPs also want to extend the 12-week resettlement allowance for ousted MPs by an extra two months in return for a 12-trip cap on their post-parliament travel allowance.
Federal parliamentarians have also demanded assistance from taxpayers to re-enter the general workforce with a capped allowance to help them become "job ready".
"This will in some cases require re-training or engagement with a previous profession, in other cases it will require complete retraining," they say.
In its submission to the review, the Remuneration Tribunal backs the bid to roll MPs' electorate allowance in to their existing salary but says superannuation should be calculated on the base salary only.
The tribunal also supports the MPs' suggestion that they should receive an annual fixed allowance of up to $30,000 for nights spent in Canberra in lieu of the $230-a-night they currently receive.
The tribunal also says there is a "strong case" for giving shadow ministers extra salary because they have greater responsibilities.
But the tribunal urged the Government to dump the lucrative Life Gold Pass enjoyed by former prime ministers and very long-serving MPs.
MPs have also offered to give up some entitlements including their yearly right to a $25,000, first-class, round-the-world airfare in lieu of a $7000 payment.
The whips have also urged the Federal Government to stop using the word "entitlements" and describe the perks as "Members' and Senators' budgets or allocations". |