Barnaby Is Right

This is completely on the nose.

A Pinocchio nose.

It smells like a plotline straight out of Yes Prime Minister:

Julia Gillard is in line for a $140,000 pay rise, while federal backbenchers will see their pay packets swell by more than $50,000 a year, under an overhaul of MPs’ pay rates…

The adjustments will push the Prime Minister’s pay to $481,000 a year, while backbenchers will earn a base salary of $185,000.

Senior public servants will also get big pay rises, which will lift the salaries of the nation’s top bureaucrats to more than $800,000 by 2014.

Fellow Yes Minister fans will recall the episode titled “A Real Partnership”, in which top public servants Sir Humphrey (Cabinet secretary) and Sir Frank (Treasury secretary) conspired to con PM Hacker into granting a huge increase in public servants’ salaries, and getting it approved by linking public servants’ salary increases with increases for MP’s as well.

With senior public servants (like our new Treasury secretary, Martin “Mini-me” Parkinson) to receive the biggest increases, of course.

And all in the face of a looming financial crisis.

Seriously … that was the plotline.

They say that art imitates life.

Given that Yes Minister is allegedly the most popular TV series amongst the Canberra politico-bureaucracy, I’d say this is a case of life imitating art.

But unlike the brilliant Yes Minister, our real-life political comedy is a complete stinker.

UPDATE:

And yes, dear reader, just like in “A Real Partnership”, it is the ‘top’ public servants who are getting the biggest salary increases – even more than the PM – while lower ranked public servants get little-to-nothing (as usual). More from the Daily Telegraph:

The heads of key federal government departments will receive an unprecedented pay rise – in some cases more than $200,000 a year – taking the annual salaries of Canberra’s top mandarins to well over $700,000.

In a decision likely to trigger public fury, the Secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet Ian Watt and other Commonwealth agency heads have been granted one of the biggest pay increases in years…

The heads of PM&C, Treasury and Defence have been granted remuneration rises from $549,000 to well above $700,000.

Well placed sources said the annual remuneration could be as high as $800,000 for these leading public servants…

The move, just 10 days before Christmas, is bound to be condemned by ordinary public servants who have struggled for far less generous pay rises against a government mantra of budgetary pressure.

Big winners from the pay decision include Mr Watt, Treasury Secretary Dr Martin Parkinson and the Secretary of the Defence Duncan Lewis.

For Sir Humphrey Appleby, substitute Ian Watt.

For Sir Frank Gordon, substitute Martin “Mini-me” Parkinson.

UPDATE 2:

How much do you reckon the World’s Best Finance Minister Trained Monkey is worth?

Treasurer Wayne Swan will get an extra $84,000 a year, pushing his salary to $346,000.

Moreover:

Remuneration Tribunal president John Conde said MPs’ pay rates had to be lifted to reflect their work, and the importance of the position.

“We concluded it was important to have a level of remuneration to attract and retain people from all walks of life,” he said.

Really?

“All walks of life”, you say?

I see few if any tradies, miners, nurses, teachers, engineers, architects, emergency service workers, labourers, truckies, farmers, or other real workers in our Parliament.

What I do see, is a fancy building absolutely chock full of lawyers, union hacks, and has-been minor celebrities.

Parasites.

Living well … very well indeed … off the misfortune, ignorance, and gullibility of others.

Tags: julia gillard, MP salaries, public servants, Remuneration Tribunal