Tuesday 16 September 2008
Costello on the pension ...
Decisions, decisions, decisions!!
Former treasurer Peter Costello must be a worried man. The poor bugger has a dilemma - he has to decide when he will leave the federal parliament.
Peter Martin, The Age's economic correspondent, has taken a look at the options Costello has.
1. As a backbencher, the former treasurer is earning $127,000 a year. But calculations performed by The Age using tables prepared by the Finance Department suggest that if he retired instead, his annual income would jump to $176,633 courtesy of Australia's parliamentary superannuation scheme.
That payment would grow with increases in parliamentary salaries and would stay with the 51-year old for the rest of his life.
2. If he wants, he can halve his $176,633-a-year pension and turn the rest into a lump sum of $1.77 million.
Let's put all that into perspective.
Single old-age pensioners get $273 a week.
Yes, they get $14,196 a year.
Putting it another way, that's "a mere 8% of what the former treasurer will make."
Perhaps Costello is looking for a shoulder to cry on as he contemplates how he'll survive after he departs the Canberra scene.
Former treasurer Peter Costello must be a worried man. The poor bugger has a dilemma - he has to decide when he will leave the federal parliament.
Peter Martin, The Age's economic correspondent, has taken a look at the options Costello has.
1. As a backbencher, the former treasurer is earning $127,000 a year. But calculations performed by The Age using tables prepared by the Finance Department suggest that if he retired instead, his annual income would jump to $176,633 courtesy of Australia's parliamentary superannuation scheme.
That payment would grow with increases in parliamentary salaries and would stay with the 51-year old for the rest of his life.
2. If he wants, he can halve his $176,633-a-year pension and turn the rest into a lump sum of $1.77 million.
Let's put all that into perspective.
Single old-age pensioners get $273 a week.
Yes, they get $14,196 a year.
Putting it another way, that's "a mere 8% of what the former treasurer will make."
Perhaps Costello is looking for a shoulder to cry on as he contemplates how he'll survive after he departs the Canberra scene.
Labels:
accountability,
Federal Parliament,
pension
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