‘Going to be a shock’: Ex-ministers face pay cuts up to $195k

Labor’s surviving MPs are set to go from the penthouse to the outhouse after being thrown into Opposition for the first time in their political careers.

Former premier Steven Miles with then ministers Meaghan Scanlon (left) and Shannon Fentiman

• Editor’s view: Harsh new reality

The Labor Party’s surviving MPs are set to go from the penthouse to the outhouse after being thrown into Opposition for the first time in their political careers.

More than 100 Labor staffers who work across 18 ministerial portfolios will face the axe, including personal drivers, media managers and policy writers.

All surviving ministers, including Opposition Leader Steven Miles and his deputy leader, will be left with a mere 23 employees combined.

Each Labor MP will be left to their own devices, faced with organising their own diaries, phone calls and transport.

They will be forced to find their own information in the absence of offices full of research teams and data collectors, instead relying on public and media reports.

“It’s like going from the penthouse to the outhouse,” a political source said.

Gone are the plush leather chairs and executive desks furnishing the historic offices in the old sandstone wing of Queensland Parliament.

The cramped but grand offices afforded to ministers of the Crown – just steps away from the Legislative Assembly – will be no more.

Instead, Labor frontbenchers will be banished to a floor of upgraded, but plain, offices on level nine of the Parliamentary Annexe.

About 14 former ministers will take a $125,309 pay cut when they become opposition spokespeople.

However if they move to the back bench, the salary loss will be as high as $194,925.

Mr Miles’ pay will drop by $83,540, while deputy leader Cameron Dick will take a $111,386 pay cut.

The Labor source warned that egos would need to take a back seat in order for Labor to survive in opposition.

It costs $57m to run all of the government’s 18 ministerial offices, compared to the slim $4.6m budget allocated to the opposition.

Deputy Cameron Dick (foreground) faces a $111,000 pay cut.

The opposition budget is a drop in the ocean compared with the $5.5m annual expenditure by the premier’s office.

In the 12 months to June 30 staff the premier’s salaries alone nearly reached the opposition’s at $4.2m.

New shadow ministers will also have to say goodbye to freebies commonly offered to politicians in high positions.

These include exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge and Virgin Velocity memberships, corporate music concert tickets and sporting game tickets, including State of Origin tickets.

Opposition Leader Steven Miles will likely be the only remaining Labor MP to reap benefits similar to what he has experienced during his near decade in government.

Cameron Dick, Shannon Fentiman, Steven Miles and Leanne Enoch were all parachuted into cabinet roles and have no experience on the back bench.

“Don’t run out of the blocks after that first caucus meeting,” the source warned.

“A number of the current leadership group have done nothing but be a minister, Grace Grace is the main exception.

“It’s going to be a shock.”

Originally published as ‘Going to be a shock’: Ex-ministers face pay cuts up to $195k