Government approves pay hikes for Crown board, authority members after fee framework changes
The Government has begun approving significant pay hikes for members of Crown boards – in several cases roughly doubling their compensation – after introducing a new set of fees.
While the suggested fee ranges for some boards have been lifted by 80%, in practice, certain chairs and members are receiving pay increases above this.
The old system under Labour only saw increases as large as 10% – under National they are now 80%.
National looks after the bosses while starving the Frontline.
Teachers, Nurses, Drs, Firefighters, Police – all the actual workers on the frontline get miserable increases, we get told to cut back, but the Bosses, oh National love the Bosses…
Penny Simmonds, Minister for both the Environment and Vocational Education, approved increases for the EPA and the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) as she said the previous fees “were well below what is appropriate for boards with this level of responsibility, and the updated Cabinet Fees Framework requires us to bring them into line”.
This includes the 82.5% uplift to the EPA chair fee, effective from December, and increasing the TEC chair’s annual pay from $47,628 to $84,694.50, a 77.8% jump.
The Presiding Member of the Film and Literature Board of Review will now get $1100 per day of work, a 96.4% increase from their previous pay of $560 per day, after approval by Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden. Regular members’ fees were lifted by 84.2% from $380 to $700.
Members of the Lotto New Zealand Board also had their fees increased from $31,950 annually to $53,720, an increase of 68.1%.
Social Development Minister Louise Upston approved fee increases from July for the New Zealand Artificial Limb Service (NZALS), with the chair’s annual fee rising 80.2% from $25,200 to $45,400 and board members jumping 77.9% from $9500 to $16,900.
Fees for the Water Services Authority hadn’t been reviewed since it was established in 2021, so Local Government Minister Simon Watts agreed to lift the chair’s pay by 66.7% from $30,000 to $50,000 and doubled members’ fees from $15,000 to $30,000.
For example, the chair of the Crown Forestry Rental Trust will now get $1150 per day, up 75.6% from $655. Members of the Guardians of the NZ Superannuation had their fees increased 44.9% from $49,000 a year to $70,995.
…National rule for then Few.
Labour rule for the many.
This is what NZ has become.
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