Katter disappointed at Government pay rise vote
The Member for Mount Isa Robbie Katter said he was disappointed the Queensland Government did not support his partys amendment which would block the proposed $57,000 pay rise for Queensland MPs, and call for any increases to be linked to the public sector.
Mr Katter said his colleague, the Member for Dalrymple Shane Knuth, had introduced a Private Members Bill to block the pay increases and establish an independent remuneration tribunal to regulate MPs pay rises a move which was taken up by Premier Campbell Newman.
We believe it is wrong and improper for State Government MPs, led by the deputy premier, to award themselves a massive pay increase while so many Queenslanders are doing it tough.
It displays either naivety or lack of empathy that this government has for the people of this state, said Mr Katter.
My amendments included to not increase the salary of a member of the Assembly for a year by more than the greatest of the following the wage of an ambulance officer, a fire service officer or a police officer.
I know that a lot of people in this House, including myself, took pay cuts to come in here because we wanted to make a change.
Surely, it is not about the money. We are here to do a job for Queensland, which means making responsible decisions and doing things in line with what we think is in the best interests of the state.
Some increases may be due, but I would say that the timing is appalling for such a large increase to apply at a time in Queensland when so many small businesses and public sector employees are taking a hit.
I believe that it is a good move to keep a cap in the future, Mr Katter said. Thursday 22 August 2013
Does Katter want every one in Australia to take a wage break , Some thing I have advocated for many years . What we in this country have done is allow unions and greedy people to push up our wages to an extent that we are no longer competive on the world stage , In other words we kept demanding more , The processers and manufactures kept putting up prices and we were and still are like a dog chasing its tail , We need to reduce our wages , Our costs and our charges so we once again become competive on the world markets and we need to value add to our resources so we create employment for our young people or Australia is going to become uneconomic and a third country , Take a look at areas like Detroit in the US and many other major ex manufacturing areas . You can not demand more and more money . If you do wages go up and so does the costs of living . You never catch up and you price your self out of world markets ,
Peter Schuback
Senate Candidate for the Australia First party 0408458232