Saturday, June 12, 2010

Prime Minister of Slovenia gets only €3,000 a month

Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor has told students that he cannot live on his salary of €3,000 (about NZ$5,255) a month and has to dip into his savings to make ends meet.

Pahor was speaking at a conference on students' rights, at which students protested against government plans to limit their right to work and more than double the tax on their earnings to 29.5 percent from 14 percent.

"I'm a prime minister and I earn 3002 euros (net) per month ... I cannot survive on that and I live from what I earned before," Pahor said.

Although a former Eastern bloc country, Slovenia is the wealthiest former European communist country and was the first to be allowed to adopt the Euro. Given that Slovenia's population is half that of NZ, it nevertheless demonstrates how massively overpaid NZ's politicians and government organisation bosses - some of who get the equivalent of €25,000 a month - are in comparison.

If Bill wants to balance the NZ public budget, he could start by cutting these people's salaries. If they protest and claim that they would get more in Australia, then let them go there - they won't be missed.

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