Alan Cadman (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank my colleague Kelvin Thomson for his comments and the way in which he presented this matter, because it is a matter that concerns all members of parliament, on both sides of the House. We rely of course on the Remuneration Tribunal for general guidance in this area. The uncertainty of tenure for a member of parliament and the need to have some sort of benchmark by which to set our superannuation has already been raised in this debate. The Parliamentary Superannuation Amendment Bill 2006 adopts a Public Service guideline, a Public Service setting. In order to bring into line the two sets of conflicting conditions of superannuation for members of parliament that currently apply, following the 2004 amendments, the benchmark which should be applied should be the Public Service benchmark of a contribution of 15.4 per cent. I think there is agreement in the House that this is a reasonable matter, and I have pleasure in supporting the legislation.

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