During this time – and until 1880 – William Gladstone was MP for Greenwich in south London and, remarkably, visited his constituency on the grand total of one single occasion.
Back in the day a NZ member of parliament was paid a salary quite similar to a school principal. Now, the average salary of a school principal is $127,000, while a member of parliament is $168,000 – around a third more. We could debate until the cows come home whether certain people deserve to be paid what they get, but what always intrigues me is what we get for our money.
Parliament sits Tuesday to Thursday three weeks out of the month for around 10 months of the year: roughly 90 sitting days or a quarter of the year. Select committees sit at other times, often during a parliamentary recess but, let’s face it: most people can’t name a select committee or tell you what any select committee is doing at the moment. Nobody knows and nobody cares. But I do accept it is an important aspect of the lawmaking and the parliamentary process.
When parliament is sitting, MPs are usually only in the chamber during question time and perhaps the Wednesday general debate. Once again, most don’t know or care what is being debated.
The reality is that members of parliament spend most of their time undertaking activities that are irrelevant nonsense, and do so in order to help them get re-elected. Having worked themselves into a state of exhaustion doing things that don’t need to be done, to impress people who don’t care, with seemingly little purpose other than posting a photograph on social media, the member of parliament then gets to claim they work a 90-hour week and imply that “you should be lucky to have me representing you”.
As an example, I have taken the Facebook page of a first-term National MP (who is actually a good friend of mine). Over the last week he has hosted the prime minister at a Federated Farmers event in his electorate, attended a Saturday market (photographed eating a pie), attended a Santa parade, dressed up like an Indian to attend a Diwali event, attended a second Santa parade, visited a scout group and a furniture factory, attended a Young Enterprise Trust event, visited a seed company and a couple of schools, spoke at a Lions event, attended a quiz night...I shall stop there, you’re probably getting the general idea. None of this palaver is necessary or important and is done simply as part of a three-year election campaign. Oh, and he found time to pop up to parliament and do some actual work.
It is an identical story with all other MPs. It’s small potatoes stuff by small potatoes people. Compare them with William Gladstone who was presumably too busy reforming Britain and changing the world to waste time on such peripheral nonsense.
Capitalist is a simple country boy from the deep south who seeks nothing less than the destruction of socialism and collectivism in New Zealand. This article was first published HERE
Back in the day a NZ member of parliament was paid a salary quite similar to a school principal. Now, the average salary of a school principal is $127,000, while a member of parliament is $168,000 – around a third more. We could debate until the cows come home whether certain people deserve to be paid what they get, but what always intrigues me is what we get for our money.
Parliament sits Tuesday to Thursday three weeks out of the month for around 10 months of the year: roughly 90 sitting days or a quarter of the year. Select committees sit at other times, often during a parliamentary recess but, let’s face it: most people can’t name a select committee or tell you what any select committee is doing at the moment. Nobody knows and nobody cares. But I do accept it is an important aspect of the lawmaking and the parliamentary process.
When parliament is sitting, MPs are usually only in the chamber during question time and perhaps the Wednesday general debate. Once again, most don’t know or care what is being debated.
The reality is that members of parliament spend most of their time undertaking activities that are irrelevant nonsense, and do so in order to help them get re-elected. Having worked themselves into a state of exhaustion doing things that don’t need to be done, to impress people who don’t care, with seemingly little purpose other than posting a photograph on social media, the member of parliament then gets to claim they work a 90-hour week and imply that “you should be lucky to have me representing you”.
As an example, I have taken the Facebook page of a first-term National MP (who is actually a good friend of mine). Over the last week he has hosted the prime minister at a Federated Farmers event in his electorate, attended a Saturday market (photographed eating a pie), attended a Santa parade, dressed up like an Indian to attend a Diwali event, attended a second Santa parade, visited a scout group and a furniture factory, attended a Young Enterprise Trust event, visited a seed company and a couple of schools, spoke at a Lions event, attended a quiz night...I shall stop there, you’re probably getting the general idea. None of this palaver is necessary or important and is done simply as part of a three-year election campaign. Oh, and he found time to pop up to parliament and do some actual work.
It is an identical story with all other MPs. It’s small potatoes stuff by small potatoes people. Compare them with William Gladstone who was presumably too busy reforming Britain and changing the world to waste time on such peripheral nonsense.
Capitalist is a simple country boy from the deep south who seeks nothing less than the destruction of socialism and collectivism in New Zealand. This article was first published HERE
1 comment:
I guess there needs to be a balance between time spent in Parliament, listening to 22 year old drama queens and Gandalf lookalikes, against time spent in one's electorate, finding out what's going on and what's needed.
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