Albanese’s Qantas upgrades outrage and RBA Governor’s pay cheque tell us envy pays in politics | David Penberthy

Toxic emotions pay off in politics and it won’t just be the PM feeling them in the wake of the latest Canberra travel scandal, writes David Penberthy.

Envy is a toxic emotion.

The Good Book has something to say about it, warning against the coveting of thy neighbour’s house, wife, servant, ox and ass.

It’s a rule to live by. Especially the last bit. Coveting thy neighbour’s ass can land you in heaps of trouble.

Despite its Anglo-Saxon heritage Australia has mercifully not replicated the stultifying class-based structures which see Britons self-identify and identify each other on the basis of status and income.

We don’t begrudge people getting ahead, especially in the more gauche and garish parts of Australia such as Perth, Sydney and the Gold Coast, where new money is celebrated and white shoes have historically been worn with pride.

Most of us look at someone who has made a motzah creating a successful business and say good luck to you.

They risked their own capital, worked long hours, created opportunities for other people. They are entitled to their money.

Where things become different is in the field of public administration with those figures whose jobs are underwritten by the people and whose roles give them direct control over people’s lives.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stands with former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. Picture: James D. Morgan/Getty Images

It is for this reason that Anthony Albanese has copped such a sustained caning over the Qantas upgrades scandal.

Few people in Australia have that kind of access.

You struggle to envisage a scenario where you would request such a favour even if you did have the bloke’s number. It’s like having a friend with a beach house.

If they offer you the chance to stay there – and make the offer multiple times – you might eventually ask to stay a couple of nights and buy them a decent thank you gift as part of the bargain.

Cold-calling out of the blue and asking to doss down for a while? You wouldn’t dream of it.

Albanese’s actions have had broader and specific impact.

The broader impact is on politicians in their totality cementing the public perception that they’ve all got their snouts in the trough, an assertion made more compelling by the fact that so many of them have received upgrades.

The specific impact is on Albanese himself with the perception he was compromised as Transport Minister and is now covering his backside as Prime Minister.

The best recent example of why the politics of envy can sometimes prove irresistible comes from Reserve Bank Governor Michelle Bullock.

Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia Michele Bullock. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

To be clear from the outset none of this is a criticism of the job she has done as RBA Governor since assuming the reins a year or so ago.

She has been trying to resist increasing interest rates and is only playing the hand she’s been dealt anyway, trying to keep inflation in its target range amid frequent acts of budgetary profligacy by those in the business of trying to win elections.

But I am not sure that she has done such a good job that she deserves a $100,000 pay rise, taking her salary to more than $1 million bucks for the first time in the history of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

This is a genuinely eye-watering sum and it has been awarded with no quantified or demonstrated productivity increases, no stated KPIs which have been satisfied or exceeded.

It comes at a time when almost every other worker in the land is still feeling the backdraft of pay cuts and pay freezes brought about by Covid.

It compares woefully with the more modest pay offered for the same job in other comparable nations.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is paid €427,560 (A$697,698.82), while US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is paid US $190,000 (A$286,678).

What is so different about doing the job in Australia that requires such an extravagantly high level of remuneration?

Is the job four times harder in Australia than in the United States, the biggest and most important economy in the world?

As I said it’s not a knock on the job that she is doing. Bullock is not responsible for the legacy of her predecessor Phillip Lowe who despite predicting no rate increases for a good three years saw them subsequently increase on 14 occasions, and then said no-one should have taken what he said as a prediction.

The problem Ms Bullock has is that the skyrocketing level of dosh she is amassing dovetails with her pat pronouncements on how Beryl and Barry Stringbag out there in Punterland can deal with the impact of such high mortgage repayments, with loan repayments now representing an unprecedented portion of incomes, even higher than during the recession we “had to have”.

Bullock’s bedside manner becomes a problem when you set it against the growing level of remoteness a salary package like hers inevitably engenders.

This from last month, where the Governor was musing on the human toll of high interest rates, saying some people would have to make “painful adjustments” as a result of the cost of living crisis.

“This includes things like cutting back on their spending to the more essential items, trading down to lower quality goods and services, dipping into their savings or working extra hours,” she said.

“Some may ultimately make the difficult decision to sell their homes.”

It would be easier to cop suggestions that you switch from Mutti Italian canned tomatoes to Black and Gold brand crushed up faux tomato red coloured garbage if it wasn’t coming from someone who’s just pocketed more than the average annual income in the form of a pay rise.

A pay rise which as far as I can tell was linked to absolutely nothing.

Originally published as Albanese’s Qantas upgrades outrage and RBA Governor’s pay cheque tell us envy pays in politics | David Penberthy