Another job over!

I was appointed to a State Government Panel last year which was asked to undertake the revision of the payment to certain councils based on specific criteria, when I accepted the appointment, I did so on the understanding that it would be at most 1 or 2 meetings, well 6 or 7 meetings later, we have finished our work and the Minister has accepted all of our recommendations.

It was extremely interesting work, made more difficult by the original decision by the then local government minister in 2000 not to index the allowances.

Councillors in the top category of Councils get paid $18,000 per year, often for what can be a 30 hour week, the Mayor gets $57,000 per year for at times a 60 hour week. It equates to less than $10.00 per hour. Compared to our State and Federal Representatives this is a paltry amount, given that Councillors are really at the coalface.