Stirling councillors push for cash

by Coleen Tan

April 15, 2008

A STIRLING city councillor will push ahead with a bid for a 62.5 per cent pay rise for local representatives in Perth’s north, even though council staffers reckon she’s got Buckley’s.

A notice of motion submitted by Doubleview warder Stephanie Proud at Stirling council’s April 15 meeting sought a pay rise from the current $7500 to up to $20,000 per year.

“My justification is that long hours of work are required for councillors to do their job,” Cr Proud told eMU News. “If you’re a councillor, you’re expected to put in more hours, and work, to do your job effectively.

Cr Proud said the current sitting fees only equated to $6 per hour.

According to a council staffers’ report, councillors’ workload and commitments have increased markedly in recent years.  The average metropolitan councillor attends three meetings a week, the report said.

On top of this, many councillors also attend meetings with ratepayers, site visits for development applications, citizenship ceremonies, and community functions.

Existing expense allowances for City of Stirling councillors include communication and fuel expenses.

There is “no existing cap on expenses ... except for travel,” Balga ward councillor Leonie Getty said.

Cr Getty holds a full-time job as an accounts payable supervisor.

 “I’m not a lawyer or a banker, or someone with a high-paying job,” she said. “We have meetings almost every night, as well as other meetings for residents during the week.

“I get up by 4am every morning, and I usually don’t get to be home by midnight.”

Former Stirling mayor Terry Tyzack, an on-again, off-again councillor for 30 years, agreed councillor workload had “multiplied many times”.

 “The amount of work that councillors do today is almost equivalent to that of a parliament member,” he said. “I think it’s time there was a review on what’s expected of councillors, and that they should get a fair remuneration.”