MEDIOCRITY and MOHICANS
The recent 99FA Legislative Opinion Paper by Mr Bernard F Quinn KC is the latest evidence that the intellectual and ethical standards in Canberra have diminished over the past 20 years. This legislation is clearly flawed but the Minister and Treasury Bureaucrat Advisers either do not understand or do not care about the integrity of the issue and its market ramifications going forward. Unfortunately for our industry and consumers, they have simply ignored it.
The time has now come for minimum educational and ethical standards to be imposed on all Politicians entering all levels of Government.
May 13th 2004 will go down in political history as a dark day for Australia’s democratic health and culture. This was the day the 1948 Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Act was read in the Senate for the first time to abolish the overly generous Superannuation pension scheme for Politicians.
Opposition Leader Mark Latham was successfully challenging Prime Minister John Howard leading into the OCTOBER 9TH 2004 Election, Latham intimated he would cancel the highly unpopular scheme with taxpayers. Howard immediately reacted and cancelled the entitlement which was quickly followed by the State Governments who all abolished their similarly generous arrangements.
This action was of course grandfathered for existing Politicians, a classic display of self-interest and a great victory for taxpayers but it can be argued a poor outcome over the long term for consumers and the Nation.
This cancellation means all Politicians entering Parliament post the 2004 Election are excluded from the pension scheme and subject to conditions closer to current taxpayer superannuation arrangements. What this has done is remove the incentive for the best potential candidates to enter Canberra making it very difficult for all sides of Politics to recruit the best brains [and ethics] into the political fray. This degradation of quality over the past 20 years is quite evident with the poor behaviour, ethics and intellect on display by some Politicians for all to see.
It is not a good look for Australian democracy when a former post 2004 elected Prime Minister cannot afford to leave Parliament because he had damaged his image, therefore could not get a job and does not get a pension to support his family.
With this deterioration of talent entering Politics surely it is time to now impose the already mentioned educational and ethical standards? A Political degree or similar and passing an ethics exam should be a minimum criterion. Without appropriate standards it has become quite apparent over the past 20 years that some Politicians are just not across their portfolios or do not generally understand basic issues.
The current dynamics around both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton is fascinating. Unlike the last Prime Minister, they are two of the last ‘Mohicans’ left in the old Pension scheme with entering politics in 1996 and 2001 respectively. In this old scheme once the Politician achieves 20years service the retirement benefit is 75% of their best salary position with 5/6th of this going to their spouse upon their death. No wonder political spouses are always smiling!
The PM’s current salary is $607,500 giving him around $455,625 pa indexed for life if he loses the election and departs. The Opposition Leader won’t be on ‘struggle street’ either, his current salary is $432,250 giving him a pension of $324,187 pa indexed for life if he departs after the next election.
We can now understand why the Opposition Leader is having a real go at the top job while only having a 0.7% margin in the seat of Dickson. Conversely the Prime Minister enjoys a 17.06% margin in the seat of Grayndler and looks very relaxed when the Polls are not exactly what he wants.
To keep the Canberra environment healthy with ethics and intellect, taxpayers need to either allow a less generous pension fund or a far greater wage to attract the best talent. The old adage of ‘paying peanuts and getting monkeys’ is apt.
The other conundrum challenging Canberra and the Nation is the best Legal and Commercial talent do not normally strive to work for the Commonwealth public service. This cohort are seeking higher levels in the corporate or international sectors leaving the second-tier talent going into the Public Service.
This has created a less-than-ideal mediocratic environment where the best brains are not navigating the country’s future, Mr Quinn KC has clearly and comprehensively illustrated this point.
Peter Johnston | Executive Director
