Premier Jacinta Allan will take home almost half a million dollars after Victorian MPs received a 3.5 per cent pay rise.
The Victorian leader stands to pocket up to $498,031 in 2024/25, up from $481,190 last financial year, according to a decision by Victoria’s Independent Remuneration Tribunal to boost MPs’ salaries on Monday.
The Prime Minister’s package includes a spending allocation of $62,597.
Deputy Prime Minister Ben Carroll can earn up to $423,944, while backbenchers will take home $205,798 in salary.
Opposition leader John Pesutto can accumulate up to $397,192.
The state’s annual spending on its 128 MPs will increase by $890,752, despite multiple calls to reduce MPs’ pay.
It also coincides with escalating tensions following a government directive to the state’s public health providers ordering significant cuts to their operating budgets.
The 3.5 percent pay increase reflects the determination made in 2023.
Premier Jacinta Allan will take home almost half a million dollars after Victorian MPs received a 3.5 per cent pay rise.
The state’s annual spending on its 128 MPs will rise by $890,752, despite multiple calls to cut MPs’ pay (file image)
The latest decision said that stakeholders proposed that MPs’ salaries and allowances be reduced, frozen or increased by three percent to take into account the state’s financial situation and salary policy.
‘The court also noted the Fair Work Commission’s 2024 decision to increase the national minimum wage and modern minimum wages by 3.75 per cent and recent pay adjustments for members of parliament in other Australian jurisdictions, which ranged from no change in New South Wales to a four per cent increase for Queensland MPs,’ it said.
The tribunal was established in 2019 after the state government introduced legislation preventing politicians from setting their own salaries and allowances.
Earlier this year, the Allan government said the state’s net debt would reach $188 billion by 2027-28, representing a quarter of Victoria’s overall economy.
The court said wages in Victoria’s public sector have shown slower growth than those in the private sector in recent years, according to the Herald of the sun.
“Over the 12 months to the March quarter 2024, public sector wages grew by 2.5 per cent, compared with 3.9 per cent in the private sector,” it said in a statement of reasons.
It also predicted a rebound in economic growth fueled by a recovery in household spending and found that employee costs were the state’s largest operating expense in 2022-23.
