By Shelby Brooks
Cardinia Shire mayor and councillors are set to receive around a 20 per cent pay increase in their yearly wages due to the rapidly increasing population.
The Minister for Local Government Shaun Leane advised in January 2020 that Cardinia would move from a category two to a category three council based on population growth.
Councillors who oversee larger municipalities are elibigle for pay increases in line with the Local Government Act.
The pay increases were voted through by councillors on Monday 19 April after the matter was deferred last year because of the pandemic.
Currently, the mayor receives $81,204 a year and councillors $26,245.
As of 1 July, as a category three council, the mayor will receive up to $100,434 per annum and councillors up to $31,444, plus 9.5 per cent super.
This puts the mayor among the 12 per cent of Cardinia shire residents who earn $100,000 per annum.*
Mayor Brett Owen said the pay increases were justified.
“In my opinion it is a fulltime job if you do it properly,” Cr Owen said at Monday’s meeting.
“As people know I’ve been mayor three times… and I don’t think I’ve ever been as busy (in 2020) as in my previous terms. It’s busy, it’s different from non-pandemic mayoral years.”
Cr Graeme Moore agreed, stating the role of mayor wasn’t just about cutting ribbons.
“We are understating the actual responsibilities of the mayor here,” he said.
“It’s not how many events one would go to… it’s a responsibility factor of what the mayor has to do, and that is to be on call.
“If there was a flood or fire, I know who would be in front line, the mayor would be. That’s what the mayor is paid for and that’s where bringing up to that level category, I think right across the board it is fair as the State Government has suggested.“
Cr Moore questioned that if the pay rises didn’t occur, Cardinia would have trouble attracting higher calibre councillors in the future.
However some councillors were worried about community perception of the increase, particularly the hike in the mayor’s allowance.
Cr Collin Ross said that in the last 12 months during Covid, the mayor had a “much reduced” workload.
“Needless to say it was never ever brought up that the mayoral allowance would be reduced if the workload was less,” he said.
“With things not even opening up fully, I don’t know how, if it was a private business, anyone could justify when your workload is less… a $21,000 increase.”
However, he was on board with the 20 per cent increase for councillors.
“As a single ward council, you have the responsibly of that ward… so therefore I can understand why a $6000 increase could be justified (for councillors.“
Cr Carol Ryan also said she worried that residents would be confused by the hefty gap in the remuneration between the mayor and other councillors.
“It’s up to us to explain the difference in those roles,” she said.
“We are still in Covid recovery. We do have people in our community that are struggling, we have businesses in our community that have lost their businesses because of Covid.”
She conceded that the current councillor allowance wasn’t adequate.
“If I didn’t have my other work outside of here, I wouldn’t survive on councillor allowance, but I’m lucky enough to have my own business,” she said.
Cr Jack Kowarzik said he had aspirations to be mayor one day, but felt the current salary would be “prohibitive”.
“Having a young family myself and going onto one wage while my partner goes on maternity leave, I just don’t think it’s enough money, and I think if we want to be inclusive as a council, I think we should follow the line dictated by the State Government,” he said.
““(Cr Ross) was worried about how it would look, which is a perfectly acceptable concern but given that we have received no formal community submissions on this topic, I think is indication enough to people’s responses to it.
“People want us to get on with the job and into line with the appropriate pay scale is doing exactly that.”
*According to the most recent ABS income statistics (2016).
