Yes to an independent umpire to enforce parliamentary entitlement rules

Comments on Alan Fels "Wanted: an independent umpire to set and enforce clear parliamentary entitlement rules", 4/08/2015

The proposal to have an independent body to enforce the rules for parliamentarians is a good one. It should be carefully considered and included in the recommendations in the review announced by the Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The current practice of having the Department of Finance to do such similar work means it is toothless tiger, given that there have been so many misuses already exposed and highly publicised. One can only imagine how many there are more misuses that have not been exposed.

To have the head of the Remuneration Tribunal as the co-chair of the review is a joke, given that the tribunal in the past has granted outrageous increases in the pay to parliamentarians, something like dozens or even around 50 percent in one go.

Those were not consistent with community or public expectations. That tribunal has lost its creditability due to those ridiculous magnitudes of increases.

As a result, the tribunal needs fundamental reforms to reflects community standards and expectations.