Are the greens greedy capitalists like the rest of us?

The Canberra Times (sorry no link) has been running a story over the past couple of days about the “Leader” of the Greens in the ACT Legislative Assembly, Meredith Hunter, wanting a salary increase of $50,000 to “cover new Assembly workload”. She claimed that the increase was needed to compensate her for managing the three other Greens MLAs (the irony being that there are many people on a total salary of $50,000 who manage three or more people and the ACT assembly is just a sleepy local council).

Now we shouldn’t be too concerned about this normally – after all self-interest is a powerful motivator and she is clearly seeing an opportunity to increase her standards of living.

But, really, isn’t this a little hypocritical when the Greens have been banging on about excessive executive salaries and  corporate greed?

On the ACT Greens website, the biographical entry states

I will be working hard to better engage the electorate of Ginninderra, and all citizens of the ACT in the decisions Government makes. Throughout my life I have been a strong advocate on social justice issues and have worked in community organisations in Canberra for twenty years. I have extensive experience raising awareness and promoting issues of social justice in the public arena. I am also a skilled and experienced advocate, having served on a variety of committees and task forces.

I have worked to ensure that the interests and rights of the disadvantaged and vulnerable are taken into account. My career has given me a sound understanding of the importance of the community sector and the breadth of services delivered by small self-help groups through to larger community services. I am formerly the director of the Youth Coalition of the ACT. As a mother of three, I understand the importance of having an excellent public education system as well as the provision and upkeep of playgrounds and sporting venues. I have a deep appreciation of the unique urban/bush environment that we live in, the clean air and the bush corridors that provide important recreation places for many Canberrans.

This makes it seem that Ms Hunter is a philanthropist looking after the disadvantaged and vulnerable. But she clearly wants to be highly paid for that.

It is notable that Ms Hunter did not put out a media release saying that the efficiency dividend should not apply to MLA salaries  MLA salaries.

Come on Hunter, just admit you’re in it for yourself like the rest of us.