Mirani MP Stephen Andrew vows to donate salary to struggling businesses

Stephen Andrew is calling on his fellow pollies to do the same if the state government extends lock down measures past Thursday.

Mirani MP Stephen Andrew. Picture: Melanie Whiting

Mirani MP Stephen Andrew has pledged to donate three days of his salary into a fund to help struggling businesses if the state government extends lock down measures past Thursday.

Mr Andrew is now calling on his fellow politicians, government ministers and public service chief executives to do the same in a show of solidarity with small business owners and workers impacted over the past year.

“If ever there was a time for politicians, especially the executive branch, to publicly make some form of salary sacrifice, commensurate with that being forced on the private sector, that time is now,” he said in a statement.

“Decisions that have a real economic and personal cost on society’s most vulnerable, should not be being made by highly paid elites with ‘no skin in the game’.

“If people could see that the decision-makers were also experiencing a certain level of hardship as a result of the decisions they were making, then I think the public would be able to respect that.”

Mr Andrew said the COVID-19 pandemic had caused “immense” damage to business confidence, mental health, social cohesion and personal wellbeing.

He said the challenges for the state’s tourism industry and small businesses forced back into shutdown were “heartbreaking and frustrating”.

“I feel deeply the real struggle that many Queenslanders are facing today,” the MP said.

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Originally published as Mirani MP Stephen Andrew vows to donate salary to struggling businesses