The bosses get richer while the frontline gets thinner
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 $1,100 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 $9,500 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 $1,150 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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Can we get a dollar/hour rate for what are probably perks with attendance-only required jobs as they approve whatever the lower-paid employees suggest? I might be being a bit hard on them although this looks suspiciously like what Frank would call “some are more equal than others” logic rather than anything earned by merit.
And each of these worthies will also receive a modified farrowing crate to keep their snouts firmly in the trough.
..and don’t forget stopping the peasants from taking a feed from the very oceans that surround us.
They both rule for the rich. That is crystal clear, but my question is more fundamental.. When did it stop being represent and become rule us? We vote for representatives to administer for us based on what we want done or changed. Far to often these days they just say what they think you want to hear and then do whatever the hell they want. Politics is broken.
Thoroughly agree. What have they done that we actually wanted done? They say they’ve done things but the proof is in the pudding and it’s not a big pudding and there won’t be much for us once the higher ups take their lot.
They’ve ruined things that may not have been perfect, but are a lot less perfect now.
They are the Parties of Punishment and Penalties. A cruel old fashioned govt. trying to turn us into peasants again. Those 3 greedy pathetic men are like over-bearing Victorian fathers.
Their demise will be great cause for celebration and it’s most important that ACT (the Arm of Atlas Party) and WinstonFirst (the Killer Party) are decimated.
They are infesting local councils so it’s vital there is a clean sweep.
How i wish it was as simple as voting this lot out. Vote them out in favor of who exactly? Take the road user charges they want to impose on us for example. Who remembers that from the election? No-one because it wan’t mentioned.. Ok… so we vote them out and Labour can change it back you say.. well no… actually labour voted for it too, and the greens and the Maori party. They ALL see it as ruling not administrating. They all take donations from the same people. Most large donaters give to both sides. That is what needs to stop. Those fuckers buy our politicians and they do it in the open. I preferred the old days when they sneaked the dildo up us, Now it just take it with no lube and like it.
When it suits the COC lot they say they have to pay competitive wages if we want the bests people, but this does not apply to many public servants like Doctors, Nurses, teachers, researchers, firemen, counsellors, St Johns workers etc etc
Oh how this CoC have short term memories when our greatest assets were supermarket workers(Covid)
Increase their salaries by 80% and give board members 1%
Fuck this Government is bent.
What, more bribery from this scurrilous CoC mob and their Christian leader? How can they do this with a straight face? Most of these increases are obscene in the extreme. I know the CoC don’t care about anyone hurting out there, that’s painfully obvious, but this frantic feeding of the already ‘affluent’, or should I say ‘effluent’ is disgraceful especially with so many people living permanently on the streets in NZ. Luxon, please get your ugly mug off our screens – you are the ultimate vain, thick-skinned boofhead. How come you can’t see this – the rest of us can! Again, and this question is becoming “boring”, whatever happened to democratic media in NZ for all NZ’ers?
The disparity is growing. Not only between ordinary folk and the very wealthy – that’s been around since Biblical times and most likely before – but also between the bosses / the PMC and those earning close to the minimum. Even 50k a year before tax is pretty much week to week living after expenses. Some would say that’s the norm for good many, and that you’re lucky to have regular work anyway. 50k is a damn more better than the benefit.
Unemployment is inv the single most challenge. Youth unemployment a huge issue in South Auckland for Pasifika in particular and unlikely to get any better soon as more and more jobs are lost to automation. Not that all Pasifika school leavers have few options but the stats seem to point in that direction. It would be the same for anyone leaving school with few exit quals. And that’s the kind of disparity that is most damaging. Youth without work is not a good way forward. Something’s gotta snap if the job market goes belly up for all these young people. And there’s plenty of academics and commentators like saying ’employment’ as we have known it will be very different in the foreseeable future.
It’s pretty telling that the Government can find room in the budget for major board fee hikes while frontline services continue to struggle. If these roles truly required such drastic increases, there should be equal transparency about how that investment improves outcomes for the public. Otherwise it just reinforces the sense that the gap between decision-makers and the people affected by their decisions keeps widening.
It’s corrupt as.. these clowns become board members of various different boards after they leave politics. Most of them are on multiple boards and clip the ticket on each one. Its like the wolves voting for better food for the sheep so that they are nice and fat when they want them.