Scott Morrison’s had a great few weeks. He won an election no-one expected him to win, he got to meet the Queen and give her a book about horsies, and the Australian Federal Police raided a bunch of journalists while he was away and therefore got to not answer questions about it.
He also just got an $10,769 a year pay bump as of July 1, which is nice.
Now, to be fair, this pay bump was coming regardless because Australian parliamentarians get a pay increase according to the findings of the independent remuneration tribunal, who just announced a 2 per cent increase to all MPs’ pay as a little thank you from a grateful nation.
So everyone in parliament is getting a pay rise, which should really help them understand the struggles of Australians who haven’t had a meaningful increase in their pay for almost a decade now.
Especially those in the retail industry, who’ll be getting a pay cut on July 1 because… um, they have it too good, we assume?
Maybe you should just be more like Winx!
That’s an estimated 700,000 people whose take-home pay will be reduced – but on the plus side, the 227 members of parliament will have more dosh and are presumably cool to make up the difference in the economy, right?
See, the economy is slowing and one of the big issues is that people aren’t spending enough. When people don’t spend then companies cut staff, which leaves fewer people with wages to spend, which leads to further cuts. If it goes on for long enough it becomes a vicious circle.
Hoooooo boy. That… that ain’t good.
And thus there’s an argument that the best thing to do would be to force up the wages at the bottom where a) the largest number of people are and b) people are most likely to spend the money they have – especially if they haven’t had enough for a while and have put off buying things like, say, winter coats and new shoes and other retail things that might support that high-employing sector.
Or there’s the other argument, which is nah don’t do that something something high income tax cuts something trickle down.
Anyway, Scozza, congrats on the pay rise. You’re finally getting a go for having a go.