How many politicians, PM or otherwise have actually WORKED for a living?
Can't speak for all of them but the PM was a lawyer. Mainly dealing in employment law for pretty poor workers like cleaners.
When I was an FO flying for Ansett, one overnight in Cairns I met Bill O'Chee, ...
HOWEVER - he was a senator for just 6 years - and "retired" at age 33 with a tax-payer funded, guaranteed a life long, non asset tested pension of nearly $50,000 a year.
With pollies - it's all about the perks, not the pay.
This used to be the case but Howard took away the pollies super scheme (Latham shamed him into it - a mistake I think but that's a another story). Unless they've been there a while and were in before the changes they're on the same super scheme as all other public servants.
I don't want my politicians paid badly - I want people who are actually good who want to do the job. Imagine if we paid enough to have top 100 CEOs as our Ministers or highly successful sportspeople or any real experts in their fields, the kind of people we'd get?
By the same token, I want the guy up the front of the 737 I spend a lot of time in to get paid for his or her level of responsibility, which is huge. And at the moment that sure ain't happening either.