A Positive Note

A Positive Note
The recently reported Tasmanian (Australia) mess surrounding member of the State’s upper house, Ivan Dean’s decision to run for Launceston Mayor is having a positive effect.
Sensitive to claims of double dipping, receiving salary for both jobs, Dean pledged to donate the council salary to charity.
Regardless of Dean’s good intentions the plan, inadvertently, constituted electoral bribery.
But there is a bigger issue at stake here, as one commentator put it:“…the situation raised the broader issue of whether it is still either feasible or advisable for one individual to try to hold two senior public offices at the one time.”
These, to ordinary folk, are highly paid positions. Presumably they are highly paid because they require time, effort and a measure of expertise to do the job properly.The questions are; how can anyone do both jobs properly? If they can, do we have too many elected officials on the payroll?
Tasmania is well known to be over governed. Currently there are five Federal MPs, 12 senators, 40 State MPs and 29 councils with around 300 councilors; all of this for fewer than 500,000 people.
Pruning these numbers, at any level, has always been complicated by ego, local loyalties, and no doubt a reluctance to reduce the size of the easy money trough.
If Tasmania cannot shed a few of its surplus, under employed elected representatives, the least they can do is make sure the largesse is spread around fairly.