Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for what he says. The point I am making is that the government should have gone beyond tokenism and should have brought in a freeze on all Public Service salaries for the same period. That would have shown real leadership and real restraint and would have given a message to the Australian community. To freeze politicians’ salaries alone in effect does not achieve what the government goes out to achieve. Freezing politicians’ salaries as part of a freeze on Public Service salaries would have been a much more appropriate way to go.

I believe that, for instance, our Prime Minister is not paid anywhere near enough. I am told that the Prime Minister of Singapore gets about $3 million and our Prime Minister gets about one-tenth of that. I believe that as a community we do not pay our senior ministers anywhere near enough but, having said that, if we are going to have a freeze, it would have been appropriate to have a freeze on all Public Service salaries, including the salaries of members of parliament. The government has set a dangerous precedent when you have politicians fiddling with their own remuneration.

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