NSW politicians increase their allowances to $26m amid pay freeze

An increase to ‘entitlements’ will give NSW pollies an average of $192,517 each to spend on work perks like meals and cars. The eye-watering annual figure is on top of their salaries.

NSW politicians have been granted almost $1 million a year worth of extra work perks — benefits that have been ­blasted as “tone deaf” while lockdowns force thousands of their voters out of work.

The state’s 135 MPs will be given a total of an extra $985,563 a year worth of allowances, including more money for chauffeurs, charter flights and meals.

The increase brings the total cost of NSW politicians’ entitlements to $25,989,838.50, which is an average of $192,517 per parliamentarian.

NSW politicians have increased their work allowances. Picture: NCA NewsWire

But their pay packets, which are separate to their entitlements and range from $169,192 to $407,980, will remain unchanged, given they did not ask for increases to their salaries.

Most of their entitlements have been boosted by 2.1 per cent, in line with inflation.

With fewer opportunities to travel during the pandemic, politicians have been allowed to roll their unspent travel entitlements — which include private chauffeurs, charter flights, mileage claims for private cars, and parking — into their communication allowance.

That will mean more money for advertisements, bulk emails, flyers, posters, websites and social media.

Training costs are covered to the tune of $1530 a year for politicians and $510 for each of their full-time staff, which can be put towards lessons in “community engagement”, graphic design, media skills training, writing reports and public speaking.

Some politicians complained to the Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal that they could not afford good training courses with the money they were given, which is why MPs and their staff can now accumulate their unspent annual training entitlements to put ­towards more costly courses.

The increase to parliamentarians’ allowances has been slammed as ‘tone deaf’.

Pollies who live further from Macquarie St than Wollongong or the Blue Mountains can now claim $321 every night they stay in Sydney, up from $307, to cover the costs of accommodation, meals and ­incidentals.

Depending on how far they live from the CBD, regional and rural politicians can claim the $321 overnight stay allowance for 105 to 180 nights a year.

Even if they do not stay in town overnight, politicians who live 70km or further from Parliament House can now claim $166.65 a day to cover meals and incidentals incurred during their daily commute.

Taxpayer advocacy group Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance chief operating officer Gabe Buckley said the extra entitlements were beyond the pale when so many NSW businesses struggled to make ends meet during the latest lockdowns.

“These guys are helping themselves to more of our money again, while so many people are losing their jobs,” Mr Buckley said.

“It’s tone deaf to increase the allowances when so many people are wondering how they will put food on the table next week.”