Share
4,517 Posts.
lightbulb Created with Sketch. 6978
clock Created with Sketch.
23/06/17
10:01
Share
Originally posted by bz847
↑
What do you want though? Pay them $100k a year? Some of them would make $400-$500k in the private sector (how many are lawyers by trade for example). I know he wasn't a federal MP but look at Mike Baird, he would be on what 4-5 times more $ at NAB now than he was as NSW Premier.
Di Natale should just keep quiet, he got all he wanted from Gonski 2.0 but couldn't bring himself to grow some and support it because of the pressure from the unions, he is a coward!
We have the Parliament and Senate we deserve because it was voted in by the Australian people.
Why do you think we can't reign in on spending? Is it because MPs love debt or because they know they can't win over voters by saying less money to welfare or pensioners with multi million dollar super, or less money to overfunded catholic schools?
Do you think MPs don't want to raise more revenue on principle or because they know they can't close some popular tax concessions?
I think it's time we stop whinging about our MPs and start to have a serious look at ourselves. Every Bob, Dick and Jane out there is complaining when a good piece of legislation for the majority affects their little lives. 15 years ago you were just receiving phone calls, letter and some emails, now it's a constant barrage on social media and 24hrs news cycles.
I despise everything my local Labor MP stands for politically but she also helped us and did the right thing when we needed it the most, so I do believe that the majority of the politicians in Parliament actually want to do the right thing by Australians, we are just not helping them.
You want better outcomes (which i believe is what you are rightly calling for), well it's time we start considering funding political parties solely from Federal coffers so at least when the Unions call Labor MPs or a rich donor the Libs they can't threaten to withdraw the funding they need to contest an election.
Expand
A good start to reign them in and make them accountable would be for the introduction of a Citizens Initiated referendum or a recall system where the electorate can call for a new election.
If the same percentage of voters wants to get rid of their representative as that same percentage they won their seat by in the first place.
If the electorate and the rest of the country thinks their candidate is not doing their job then they should have the right to sack them under the same conditions as they were elected.
If that is not acceptable then neither is it acceptable that so many of the idiots we have in govt are put there with such a tiny percentage of the vote.