Joe Hockey has been warned against “double dipping” after it emerged that he could potentially access his generous parliamentary pension while getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars as a diplomat.
The former treasurer resigned from parliament last week after losing the job of treasurer when Malcolm Turnbull rolled Tony Abbott in September. He is widely tipped to become Australia’s next ambassador to the US, though no formal announcement has been made.
The independent senator for South Australia, Nick Xenophon, has said he will introduce legislation to stop former politicians who have been given a diplomatic post from accessing their pensions on top of their salaries.
“If the you’re going to be an ambassador earning a quarter of a million dollars a year representing Australia’s interests with all the benefits, why should you be able to double dip with a parliamentary pension as well?” Xenophon asked reporters on Sunday.
“It’s untenable, it’s offensive to ordinary Australians who can’t access that sort of benefit. If Joe Hockey reckons the age of entitlement is over, he can lead by example.”
His statement came after News Corp reported that Hockey could access his parliamentary pension and ambassador’s salary concurrently.
Hockey took a strong stand against parents who access paid parental leave schemes from both their employer and the government, labelling them “double dippers”.
“I think it is unfair that someone can be receiving from the taxpayers a paid parental leave scheme, such as an employee of the government, and then they can go to Centrelink and get another paid parental leave scheme paid for by taxpayers,” he told the ABC on the night of this year’s federal budget. “We think that double dipping is unfair.”
During his valedictory speech to Parliament on Wednesday, Hockey praised his own efforts at ending the age of entitlement.
“I challenge all and sundry to name a speech in the last 20 years that has influenced the national debate in the way that the end of the age of entitlement speech did,” he said. “Finding the solutions to the social challenges and the financial threats of today, it can’t be postponed to another time, it can’t be left to another generation. Intergenerational theft and betrayal is not the Australian way.”
But news that the former treasurer might be able to access the generous pension scheme while getting paid at the highest salary band for public servants prompted outrage from users of social media.
Hockey has been in parliament for nearly 20 years. The base pension for a backbencher who has been in parliament for that period of time is nearly $139,000. Hockey will receive additional loading for every year he held a ministerial position, boosting the overall figure.
The highest public service band, which would take in ambassadors for large countries like the US, has an average salary of $310,600 a year.
A byelection for Hockey’s safe Liberal seat of North Sydney is expected on 5 December, ensuring that the poll is out of the way before the start of the 2016 election year.
