Not all pollies treated equally

SA SENATORS are discovering that not all politicans leave Parliament with the same generous handout.

Nick Minchin

SA SENATORS are discovering that not all politicans leave Parliament with the same generous handout.

----------------------------------------------------------

SOUTH Australian senators leaving Parliament are discovering that while some MPs depart with a $100,000-a-year pension for life, others will walk away with 12 weeks' redundancy pay.

Mark Latham's greatest political legacy, to strip politicians of their generous superannuation, has prompted one senator to respond that they "got screwed."

The reforms have created different classes of MPs, with the Class of 2004, including Labor senators Dana Wortley and Annette Hurley, walking out the door with redundancy pay but no pension for life.

Longer-serving senators Alan Ferguson and Nick Minchin have hit the jackpot, qualifying under the old scheme.

Luckily for Senator Annette Hurley, she has already qualified for a parliamentary pension from State Parliament.

SA Senator Alan Ferguson, who has served nearly 20 years in Parliament, will secure one of the most generous pensions.

He is entitled to about $100,000 a year, based on 75 per cent of a backbencher's salary, for the rest of his life.

And he feels sorry for his colleagues.

"There is a disparity but everyone can blame Mark Latham for that," he said. "People try and blame John Howard but it was forced on him.

"But I have paid in after-tax dollars a quarter of a million dollars into my super. If the government had invested that, I would never have taken a cent of taxpayers money. Instead it goes into general revenue.

"I feel sorry for Senator Trood - he doesn't even get the three months' redundancy because he's over 60."

The unlucky Queensland senator, a former academic, does not get the redundancy payment because he's too old.

"Everyone who came in after 2004 got screwed," he said. "I don't oppose the rules being changed but I think there should have been some consideration for the consequences. But I'm not complaining about this. You're an idiot if you came into politics to make money."

[e-mail]