Pay rises ‘obscene'

Sunshine Coast Regional councillors at their first council meeting.

Brett Wortman

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• Rationale for pay hikes

NOOSA de-amalgamation proponent and former mayor Noel Playford has labelled the latest recommended pay increases for the Sunshine Coast council as obscene.

Mr Playford claims that the Local Government Remuneration and Discipline Tribunal which has set the $192,000 salary upgrade for the mayor and $116,000 for councillors is little more than a gravy train that delivers salaries bloated two and three times their southern local government colleagues.

The first Noosa council mayor believes the tribunal should be setting a more realistic remuneration for council representatives that takes into account the community service component and more in line with the average salary of $64,000. And rather than compliantly putting their hands out for the tribunal hand-out, Mr Playford believes local councillors should be looking to scale back their salaries.

"I don't see anywhere where it is written down that they have to accept the tribunal recommendation," Mr Playford said.

"And even if it was, there is nothing to stop the councillors from setting aside a set amount of their remuneration towards nominated community organisations.

"I have been there (as a long-serving shire head and councillor) and know what's involved and there is no way that the job is worth that sort of money. Quite frankly what the tribunal is recommending is obscene."

He said the tribunal thinking reflected a "disease" rampant in all levels of government where the pay scales for elected members was mimicking remuneration in the corporate sector.

Mr Playford believes that the pay rates should be in keeping with company board member payments, as councillors' primary role is to direct staff rather than act as full-time employees.

He said the State Government's act of amalgamating the former three Coast councils into one has not only put them in a higher remuneration category, but also provided them with an amalgamation payment bonus.

This is more than $2500 for Coast councillors and more than $4000 for mayor.

If Noosa were to revert back to a smaller, stand-alone council, it should see local councillors drop back from the category-eight payment to that of a category-five council, more in line with Gladstone with a population of around 60,000 or the Fraser Island Coast. This would see councillors paid $75,000, the deputy mayor paid $85,000 and the mayor on $130,000.

Gympie council is now classed in category four with a $58,288 base salary for the councillors, $68,575 for the deputy mayor and $109,719 for the mayor, plus the amalgamation bonus.

The Noosa News also checked on the remuneration level for the Victorian council of Port Phillip which has a population of about 96,000. It is allowed to pay its mayor a maximum basic remuneration of $79,233 a year while councillors get no higher base salary than $24,805.

Victoria's Greater Shepparton Council, which would have a population similar to a new Noosa council with about 60,000 locals, fits in the category below where the mayor can be paid no more than a base wage of $64,062 while the councillors get base payments capped at $20,705.