There is a lot of controversy re the CEO of Christchurch city CEO receiving a $75,000 increase in salary.
In NZ councillors and the like are grossly overpaid for what they do.
In England elected officials carry out as many duties in many cases as a paid employee. My sister is a councillor in England and she works for the council every day, at times working from 9am till 10pm attending meetings and carrying out duties.
Now let's look at a comparison of two councils one in England and Christchurch as an example here.
Please don't dash about doing conversions here from pound to dollar that doesn't work in these cases what they are paid in England stays in England.
A coffee here cost $4, in England it costs four pounds.
Christchurch has a population of 348,400. (Source: Statistics New Zealand Jan 2012) . I understand the CEO is paid $500 075.00 per annum.
Now let's look for example at Buckingham which has a population of 500,000 and is grossly more complex than Christchurch hundreds of villages and small towns thousands of miles of road and a massive infrastructure. Here are the salaries for comparison and remember most of these people carry the duties of elected officials five days a week working anything from 8 to 12 hours per day.
The chief executive of Bucks County Council - that is the head of the paid service - earns £240,000 per annum plus £46,000 towards his pension.
The Leader of the Council, i.e. the head of the party in power, gets £25,000 pa and nothing more this post is similar to a Mayor in NZ.
The Chairman, a ceremonial role, gets £25,000 per annum. He does not get a chauffeur driven car unlike the District Chairman.
The chief of the District gets £137,000.
The leader gets £15,000 plus £5,000 as a member of the council.
The Chairman gets £10,000 extra on top of his basic members allowance of £5,000. The chairman also gets the use of a chauffeur driven car for ceremonial events plus £5,000 dress allowance.
Now who do you think is being overpaid in New Zealand. No wonder the people of Christchurch are up in arms over a $75,000 increase in salary. May I ask who has had a 14% increase in salary in the last five years? Nobody I know.

Alastair Bourne, Bethlehem.