Opposition Leader Tony Abbott believes he is earning his keep as an MP by campaigning against the federal government’s carbon tax.
Federal politicians have been awarded a three per cent pay increase by the independent Remuneration Tribunal, which is almost double the current rate of inflation.
Mr Abbott will get an extra $10,267 to take his salary to $352,527, but he will be $91,834 better off than a year ago after a salary review just three months ago.
“I never forget that the taxpayers in Australia pay my salary. That’s why every day I am working for their benefit,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Adelaide on Wednesday.
“Right now, I am working to save them from a carbon tax. That’s how I justify my salary, by working for the benefit of the Australian people every day, by saving them from this toxic tax, this bad tax based on a lie.”