Double Dipping ?

It is an open secret that within the next few weeks the government will announce that Joe Hockey will be our new ambassador to the United States.  Mr Hockey was the Treasurer in Tony Abbott's government and lost office when Mr Abbott was replaced by Malcolm Turnbull.  He resigned from parliament and is therefore available to start a new career.

Joe Hockey was born on August 2, 1965 and became the member for North Sydney in 1996.  Becoming Federal Treasurer was the apex of his career and when the post of prime minister changed hands, both he and Mr Abbott dropped salary and moved to the backbench.  Unlike us other mere mortals, politicians can access a generous superannuation immediately they leave office and should he so choose Mr Hockey could opt for the good life and never work again.

The post of Ambassador to the United States carries a salary of $ 360,000 a year, plus free use of the official residence in Washington and associated living expenses.   What will undoubtedly stir the left of Australian politics to fury is the prospect of Mr Hockey not only drawing an ambassador's salary, but also opting for a top-up of $ 90,000 a year from his superannuation, giving him a combined income of $ 450,000 a year.   It will be claimed that this is double dipping  !

No doubt the left will be finger pointing to the decision to exclude working Australian women from benefitting from both their employers private maternity leave and the proposed national benefit - on the grounds that this was clearly "double dipping "!

Basically, what Mr Hockey is contemplating is precisely the career options that most Australians face at some time in their working lives.  The "job for life " concept is dead and buried in this electronic age and we may need to retrain several times to accommodate an ever changing workplace.

Joe Hockey is a fifty year old man with undoubted talent to offer.  Having served as National Treasurer it seems strange that his salary was a mere pittance of the pay earned by the CEO's of our four major banking corporations.  As Treasurer, he was responsible for the management of an economy greater than the assets of those banks combined.

As Treasurer, he was paid $365,868 a year and this dropped to $200,000 when he stepped down and moved to the backbench.   He made a conscious decision to resign and it is likely that a tempting offer of that job in Washington influenced that decision, but he had the prospect of earning much more than a backbenchers salary in the wider commercial world because of the expertise and knowledge he had to offer to the world of finance.

The only real objection to Mr Hockey's change of job plans is the fact that he can access his superannuation at the age of fifty, whilst others must wait until they reach an age stipulated by law. That is a peculiarity of our parliamentary form of compensation and it relates to the fact that tenure is held by way of short parliamentary terms.  Job termination may occur at each and every election, and hence superannuation access is shortened as a form of compensation.

No doubt the charges of "double dipping " will emanate from the political left - and be brief !  It is a benefit that serves both sides of parliament - and it is too much a "hallowed institution " to be seriously challenged !