Empathy missing in action as MPs take pay rise

Christopher Luxon and Sir John Key pictured in 2021. Photo / Dean Purcell

EDITORIAL

This Government cannot be accused of not keeping its election promises as the coalition repeals and recalls Labour’s policies in favour of its own playbook.

But accepting a substantial pay rise, in the eyes of the average Kiwi, while the rest of the country is struggling is a pledge it should have declined.

Public servants are getting cut in the thousands as everyone is told to tighten their belts, rents are going up, food never seems to come down in price, and average mum-and-dad Kiwis are becoming the new working poor. Economic times are tough.

The police pay dispute has gone to mediation as officers eye better deals in Australia, and junior doctors have gone on strike for more pay and better working conditions.

Simply Red said it best: “Money’s too tight (to mention).”

So why in such a precarious economic climate would Prime Minister Christopher Luxon think it was okay for MPs to accept a substantial pay increase?

MPs will get a 2.8 per cent pay rise backdated to October, and it will be followed by another 2.9 per cent increase from July, a further 2.4 per cent next year and another 2 per cent in 2026. By the end of this parliamentary term, a backbench MP’s salary will be $181,200.

The prime minister’s salary will be $520,000 — up $50k — and the deputy prime minister’s will be $369,800. Cabinet ministers will get $327,000 by 2026 and ministers outside Cabinet $276,000.

While the Remuneration Authority sets the pay, Parliament can pass legislation to overrule it. This occurred during Jacinda Ardern’s administration in 2018, when a pay freeze was implemented for MPs and in 2020 Cabinet voted to take a pay cut.

Luxon has said he will donate his pay increase to charity.

Before John Key — who in 2016 was said to have a net worth of $50m — became Prime Minister in 2008, and as Opposition leader, he was already donating a large proportion of his salary to charity. Upon winning the top job, that arrangement continued.

To many, Key had a humanity about him even if you didn’t agree with his politics. The optics he portrayed was that he cared for the average New Zealander, not just the top end of town.

Luxon could have taken a leaf out of his mentor’s book as thousands of people lose their jobs and hard-working New Zealanders are doing it tough. He could have instructed National’s MPs — he can’t tell his coalition partners what to do — not to accept the pay rise.

That may have been the more empathetic thing to do.