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Sports |
MPs’ pension a selfish act
IN the last sitting of Parliament,
EHP Governor Malcolm Smith-Kela moved to have all losing MPs put
on pension of around K500 every fortnight for the rest of their
lives.
I find it hard to see any justification for that because five
years of service (if any) to the nation falls into
insignificance compared with many public servants’ years of
service to the nation.
What the governor should have done was to fight for the increase
of pensions and wages of the public servants.
These are the people who built this nation through hard work and
they deserve to be on pension, when they retire.
The irony of all this is that the unions in PNG have remained
silent over this issue.
I would have thought that all union movements would be up in
arms fighting to have Parliament rescind this decision.
Various unions have been fighting for a fair/justified increase
in their members’ benefits without much success and yet they are
happy to see parliamentarians have it their way.
By the way, I am assuming that the unions have been silent
because there is no time to argue over Parliament’s decision,
when it is actually going into election time.
I am also assuming that the unions will take this matter up with
the new Parliament.
The unions should fight for the decision to be rescinded as it
is not only unfair but is also a burden that its members have to
put up with through income tax.
Alternatively, the unions should fight for their members to be
paid pensions no less than that of the MPs’ pensions.
That will ensure that future moves by MPs to have their pensions
increased (undoubtedly it will double and triple), will also see
pensioners’ benefits increase as well.
As for the governor of EHP, he doesn’t really care if he wins or
loses this election because he has got his pension secured.
This is a selfish act from a selfish man.
Mark K Kenny
Gatton, Queensland
 
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