Australian parliamentarians’ pay is generous by international standards. As a raw figure, it’s among the highest in the world – currently the base salary is $195,130 per annum. But because Australia’s economy is relatively strong, in real terms it places roughly on a par with what other rich countries pay their politicians.
Rupert Murdoch, founder, Chairman and CEO of global media holding company News Corporation, the world's second-largest media conglomerate, owning both News Corp and 21st Century Fox has previously taken a similar line, praising Singapore’s ministerial pay scheme. Murdoch reckons that "the most open and clear society in the world is Singapore – the cleanest society you can find anywhere – as every minister is paid at least $1m a year and has no temptation to transgress." The Singaporean prime minister takes home almost AUD$2m a year – nearly four times as much as Tony Abbott.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much evidence to suggest that paying our MPs more would make politics cleaner. Research is indecisive on this point, but seems to suggest that paying public officials more once they’re already making a decent, living wage doesn’t have much of an effect on corruption. Such studies usually point to the importance of transparency in government practice and strong anti-corruption institutions as the primary factors in reducing sleaze.
Indeed, Australia already has very low levels of corruption, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking ninth in TI’s 2013 report. If we look at parliamentarians’ pay among those countries considered less corrupt, including the Scandinavians, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, only Swiss Federal Councillors earn more. Although members of the executive in Singapore are paid extremely well, parliamentarians are paid about the same as their Australian counterparts. Though salaries vary among this group, these results suggest that the strongest predictor of clean politics among stable, developed countries is a mix of strong anti-corruption institutions and high levels of transparency.
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/28/australia-politicia...