I got home last night to the news on TV as I ate my dinner that Local Government elected members were due to receive a 30% increase and that everyone was up in arms about it.

Gee I thought. That size increase might even prompt me to run again. Of course listening to those being interviewed showing a collective negative attitude toward councillors from all councils as being greedy and not working for their ratepayers made me wonder why would anyone bother.

I then opened my mail from Unley Council to find two references to my allowance.

The first was I have just received confirmation to pass on to my tax agent of what allowance I earnt last year. The second was a full article from the Local Government Association on the increase being approved by the Remuneration Tribunal.

My allowance this year is $ 15,495.00. The new allowance applicable to after the election will be, wait for it, $ 15,900.00. That is a whopping 2.6% increase. Looks like the the Remuneration Tribunal does not
Councils the size of Unley with the same reverence as the Adelaide City Council.

Coincidentally the rate struck prior to the last election (November 2010) was $ 14,000.00. So the increase over 4 years will be 13.6%, or an average of 2.83%