The Green MP entering Brisbane federal headquarters will quadruple his salary and has only been to Canberra Parliament once.
Stephen Bates, 29, is on the verge of changing his life dramatically, but this week he still has three more shifts in his retail work before he can focus on his new parliamentary role.
“I still have to pay my rent,” he laughed.
“So I’m going to be at work on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s going to be a very strange feeling.”
Bates has resigned today from his sales job at Chermside and says he is still facing his victory over LNP member Trevor Evans, a former head of the National Retail Association.
“It hasn’t touched me yet, honestly. It hasn’t sunk yet.”
Paying for a new MP is “crazy”
It means a dramatic salary increase: the base salary of a federal deputy is just over $ 211,000.
“It’s crazy,” Mr. Bates said.
“For the time being, I will quadruple my salary.
“I personally think politicians get too much money.
“This is an accusation in our system that we are creating this political class that can be so disconnected from what the rest of the country is experiencing.”
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Bates says he has only been to the Canberra Parliament once before.
“Once, like five years ago, for about an hour,” he said.
“I was actually in Canberra for a job interview and before I flew home I just went and stood out in front, took a picture and left.”
Queensland’s incoming green MPs. (ABC News: Chris Gillette)
As a result, Queensland sends three Greens to Canberra: Stephen Bates to Brisbane, Max Chandler-Mather to Griffith and Elizabeth Watson-Brown to Ryan.
The party is also on track to secure an additional seat in the Queensland Senate.
They have made climate change policy and housing accessibility one of their priorities.
Mr. Bates says he was motivated to get involved in politics after working at Disney World in the United States and finding a colleague on the ground crying because he had to choose between buying insulin and paying rent.
“That was a light bulb moment for me,” he said.
“We were earning $ 7.50 an hour, the US minimum wage, while this company we worked for was earning literally hundreds of billions of dollars.”
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Posted 1 hour 1 hour ago by dig. May 29, 2022 at 5:06 AM, updated 37 m ago 37 minutes ago dig. May 29, 2022 at 6:03 AM