They should keep the freeze on until the backbenchers' basic pay comes back to average weekly wages. Payment for parliamentarians was never meant to set them up for life: it was introduced so workers had the same political opportunities as the wealthy. As to the argument that lower pay would result in lower quality politicians, that is an insult to the likes of 19th century politicians such as Henry Parkes, James Service, Samuel Griffith and Charles Kingston, who served for nothing for much of their careers, and who would run rings around most of today's politicians.
