The “skills” you talk about are access to political networks. That political network includes the next person that they will recruit to sit alongside them. If you think that people making decisions on organisations who they know will be a major option to employ them after their period in Parliament is done are not compromised, then I disagree strongly.
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It is also a reward for past favourable treatment.
Hence the need to ban these post-politics appointments all together.
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Or at least, put a 5-year moratorium on their appointment.
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That’s just delaying the payoff though. At worst they’d have to struggle through on their parliamentary pension for a while before supplementing it with a meagre 350k for 4 meetings annually.
Total ban is the only impactful solution.
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Good point…well made!
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Yeah, that’s right anyone who has been a politician is only in it for themselves and all the money, graft and corruption.
My experience is that MPs as a collective have much higher levels of integrity and honesty than most groups of football supporters.
Problem with many here, and could mean you frosty and probably @dingus is that they judge everyone by themselves.
I think we all regret that our racist dad/grandfather didn’t go out and put pegs in the ground all over Australia to earn a bloody huge fortune.
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Says the politician making an impassioned defence of politicians.
Delicious ironing, Bacchus.
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Not at all Dingus.
You and others seek to segregate Politicians, as a group of blood-sucking criminals. Fact is that they are just a cross section of society and are in fact people who genuinely want to use their talents to work for their communities. Just because they have the guts to put their hands up and stand for office and cop the crap that you and others throw at them, makes you even more angry at them.
If a former Minister wants to take a job in his field of expertise after the required period by law after leaving Parliament, they are labelled grafters and corrupt. Maybe ex-footballers working in the media making $ should also be banned.
Like the rest of society, Politicians have some in their ranks who do lack integrity and honesty, but that is because they are a subset of society, just like any other profession or occupation.
Maybe they should be judged as individuals for their actions like the rest of us.
I don’t think everyone, or even everyone in Parliament, is only out for themselves, but I do think that to be in Parliament (and in particular in a major party) requires significant compromise of someone’s personal beliefs, and to an extent their integrity. I also believe that the context of being in the Canberra bubble creates an environment where there is a general acceptance that you “deserve” a bunch of these perks because of the sacrifices you make for the job. And that slowly chips away at the integrity of those who are not strong.
You can make all the personal aspersions you like, but there are a million stories of politicians bending the rules (or outright breaking them) for their own personal gain, so I am not sure why you would think that any judgement that I, or @dingus) would make would be reflective of our personal integrity, but if that’s how you want to frame it while ignoring the evidence across a number of politicians over a number of years , that’s your choice.
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Sure, we’ll judge them as individuals. And where they have made decisions in Parliament that are clearly in the interests of major corporations, at the expense of the people of the country, and then they take up highly paid “consultancy” gigs at the same major corporations immediately after leaving parliament then I will judge them.
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Well for the most part those mentioned would be getting a very healthy pension, so there isn’t exactly a financial need.
And of they weren’t able to it would likely have bought about better results for us every day people, as they’d have held these disgusting organisations to account.
But if they are as skilled as you state. Couldn’t they apply their talents into any number of other fields? One’s that don’t present a single conflict of interest and present the opportunity for manipulation while serving. It may even soften our views of these folks and stop the assumptions that they are lowly parasites feeding on our tax dollars and laughing in our faces.
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Fair enough. A Resources Minister can leave Government and work for Gina under certain rules.
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18-Month Lobbying Ban: Under the Australian Government’s Statement of Ministerial Standards former ministers are barred for 18 months from lobbying, advocating, or having business meetings with the government on any matters they dealt with in their last 18 months in office.
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Confidentiality: Former ministers and parliamentarians are strictly prohibited from using confidential information gained during their time in government for personal or private advantage.
Everyone has rules to follow.
I gave you two examples literally a day ago where those rules were ignored
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So you want to restrict ex MPs to unpaid work. Maybe everyone who retires should have that rule applied.
You mean Companies like BHP who mine iron ore so we can benefit from the end product. How disgusting ! Maybe we just should not buy any products from these disgusting companies.
Yep, they can all become Aid Workers in Africa and sit around singing Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya !
Most of us ignore rules every day. Someone has to police them.
Relying on the people who make up rules for themselves to be the ones responsible for policing them is an inherently flawed system
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I never said they’re restricted to unpaid work, just that they are already financially stable post political career (thanks to us).
And I have worked for all 3 of the big iron ore powerhouses (my wifes still in BHP management funnily enough), and yes they’re horrible from top down.
No one said go do foreign aid. But surely these highly skilled individuals as you implied could find a career in the big wide world outside of the minerals sector……. There’s honestly so many other businesses for them to operate in, but sure you can go off and make out it’s an absurd position of minerals or bust
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We banned the wrong troll
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Absolute hyperbole.
Better. And an accurate reflection of the vast majority of those who criticise the bad apples.
Thoughts on Sophie Mirabella? Peter Costello? Former SA state treasurer and well known grub Kevin Foley securing a board gig with an insurance company after privatising the state’s third party compulsory insurance portion of car registrations?
It’s corruption. Reward for favourable treatment.
Then what is your rant about? You know this happens. You know there’s corruption.
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