Put politicians on a nurse’s wage

November 20, 2010
Issue 
Peter Boyle addressing a rally organised by the Nurses' Federation outside the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Sydney, November 10

Labor special minister of state Gary Gray must be stupid if he thinks we should feel sorry for him. Gray’s pay went from $675,000 a year to $130,000 when he left Woodside Petroleum to become a politician.

Gray wants to close the pay gap between corporate CEOs and politicians — and not by cutting obscene CEO pay. He would prefer to widen the gap between politicians and the people they represent.

How about capping politicians’ pay at the level of that of a skilled worker, such as a nurse? Then politicians would have a better idea of what life is like for most people and this might have a positive impact on the decisions made by governments.

Instead, governments waste public money making the well-off even more well off. This is whether we have a Labor or a Liberal-National Coalition government.

The November 15 Sydney Morning Herald said NSW would have had $4.6 billion more in its coffers had it borrowed to build and operate the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, the M4, the M5, the M2, the Eastern Distributor, the Cross City Tunnel, the M7 and Lane Cove Tunnel, instead of handing them over to the private sector.

That’s just a small part of the problem. Billions more go to private schools, private health insurance companies, big car companies and the big four banks.

Big companies also have lower taxes while the poor pay more as governments rely more on direct taxes.

Public money should be spent on public services, such as health, education, public transport and a transition to renewable energy. Our politicians-who-would-like-to-be-paid-like-corporate-CEOs don’t think twice of giving billions to the rich, but have to be fought tooth-and-nail to spend a cent on our common good.

On November 24, nurses will strike to force the NSW government to agree to a minimum hospital-staffing ratio of one nurse for every four patients. Victorian nurses won this 10 years ago but the NSW Keneally-Labor government refuses to budge.

In my moral universe, one nurse is worth more than boardrooms of overpaid corporate CEOs. But this is a society run on upside-down values.

Many people agree, but don’t think we can change the system. But every time someone takes some action to fight for change — no matter how modest — our collective confidence in the possibility of bigger change grows.

This is why Green Left Weekly offers a voice for all those fighting for change and gives people greater confidence to go further.

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