While politicians have claimed tens of thousands in payrises, the people who clean their toilets ask for less than two dollars an hour. This is their story

THIS week, there’s even more crap than usual coming out of Canberra. Will our most senior politicians manage to clear this painful blockage?

Parlaiment House on North Terrace, Adelaide. water usage. Single flush toilet in Parliament House.

THEY clock on to work in a freezing, grey windowless bunker in the bowels of Parliament House, Canberra. Upstairs, the heating always seems a little too hot.

There are 40 of them in all. Forty doing the work of what used to be 100. But in an era of belt-tightening, they scrub and polish and mop to keep the 4,700 rooms in Parliament House spic and span while the politicians and one million annual visitors mess the place up.

For this they earn $21.17 per hour. That adds up to barely $800 for a 38 hour week. It’s a trifle more than the minimum wage, but a long way behind the current average wage of almost $1,500 for Australian adults in full-time work.

The cleaners are mostly migrants, some of them former refugees. Many are forced to work second jobs for financial reasons. They don’t expect to earn top dollar for what is classed, rightly or wrongly, as unskilled work. But they do expect just a little bit of fairness.

***FOR ONLINE***LOW RES VERSION** DO NOT USE HIGH RES VERSION ONLINE** Photographer Anne Zahalka's latest exhibition 'Parliament House at work'. Cleaner and Australian Federal Police Officer, Prime Minister’s Office (2014), Anne ZAHALKA (1957−) Parliament House Art Collection, Department of Parliamentary Services, Canberra, ACT

Here’s what that means. Since July 2012, the Parliament House cleaners have had their wages frozen. Meanwhile, over the same period, the politicians whose offices they clean have enjoyed significant wage rises.

Not content with a range of free perks which have been all too well exposed in recent weeks, the base rate of an MP has risen from $185,000 in July 2012 to the current $195,130.

And that’s the bottom of the heap. PM Tony Abbott earns more than $507,000, which is more than Barack Obama and nearly twice the wage of British PM David Cameron.

But let’s deal with the lowest-paid politicians. Even that $10.13k payrise since 2012 for back benchers translates to a little over five bucks per hour.

The cleaners? They want a lot less. They’re asking for $22.90, which would be an extra $1.73 per hour.

This week, in protest, most of them are not cleaning the toilets in Parliament House. We say “most of them” because a few of among them are putting in extra hours to make sure the toilets are cleaned.

These people want to make a point, not a mess. Luckily, some politicians have decided to help out. This is Wayne Swan (remember him?), whom we may have to call Wayne Toilet Duck from now on.

I respect the cleaners of parliament house, they work bloody hard and they work long hours. It’s a disgrace that since 2013 their wages have been frozen when all they’re seeking is a $1.80 an hour pay rise. So this week, in support of their strike for a fair wage I’ll show my support by keeping my bathroom clean.

Posted by Wayne Swan on Sunday, August 16, 2015

The union representing the Parly House cleaners, United Voice, has been negotiating with their employer, Canberra-based cleaning contractor Limro Cleaning. But Limro says it has no room to budge on its contract.

News.com.au contacted Limro but they offered no comment.

A United Voice rep told news.com.au that the terms of Limro’s contract were originally set up through an old set of rules called the Commonwealth Cleaning Guidelines. These guidelines were torn up after the Abbott government was elected. They came under the heading of “red tape”.

We all know about this government’s war on red tape. So as part of an ideological commitment to making life easy for small business, the government effectively froze wages of Parliament House cleaners.

United Voice wants the guidelines put back. It says cleaners’ wages are dropping in other workplaces beyond Parliament House.

But they don’t seem hopeful of real change. For now, this issue is bogged down. And we’re not talking about being bogged down in red tape.

We all put up with politicians’ crap every day. The question is, will our elected officials stand up for those who do it literally?

Some, like Independent Senator Glenn Lazarus, have supported them in the past. It’s over to the rest of them now.