Queensland's dodgy government passes law at 2:30am when the sheep are sleeping

This bad enough that literally every single law in Queensland is invalid from the moment the upper house was removed from the law making process, but passing laws at 2:30am seriously??? !!! ???

Just another dodgy 'money for mates' law passed while the slave population are sleeping.

See article from 1 Dec 2016 by brisbanetimes.com.au of the headline:

Public servant super laws passed overnight

The LNP opposition has accused the government of rushing through laws to get its hands on public servants' superannuation.

About 2.30am on Thursday, the government passed its Revenue and Other Legislation Amendment Bill.

 
The Queensland government has passed laws that will change how some public servants' superannuation is calculated.

Shadow Treasurer Scott Emerson said the changes could leave a public servant with more than 30 years' service $210,000 worse off.

"These changes will leave core public servants like teachers, police and nurses tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket," Mr Emerson said.
"In some cases this will cost public servants hundreds of thousands of dollars."

He accused the government of rushing through the laws late at night.

"(Treasurer Curtis Pitt) was caught trying to sneak through a change that could leave some public servants hundreds of thousands of dollars worse off," Mr Emerson said during the debate.

"We are seeing this Treasurer raiding public servants' superannuation."

The largely procedural bill includes a change to the State Public Sector (Superannuation) Act, which gives a government superannuation officer the power to change the multiple that dictates how much money an eligible worker receives from the fund when they go to cash out upon retirement.

The bill previously would have given the treasurer of the day the powers - but Mr Pitt introduced an amendment to that aspect overnight.

Currently, the formula is roughly the final salary of the worker multiplied by the multiple, which increases depending on the number of years of service - an increase in salary has an "immediate" increase in the accrued benefit for scheme members.

Workers eligible for the scheme could negotiate to use allowances to increase their overall salary; for example, a public servant with a base wage of $90,000 could negotiate to include $30,000 in allowances in their take home pay, bumping their salary to $120,000.

Under the changes, workers can no longer have their negotiated allowance payments count towards their overall pay, which lowers the multiple used.

Mr Pitt said the bill formalised the "existing administrative process to manage unfunded windfall benefit gains resulting from artificial salary increases".

"This amendment applies only to employees with defined benefit accounts," Mr Pitt said.

"There is no effect on the benefits accrued before the artificial increase in salary and there is no change to the treatment of normal salary growth, promotions or existing allowances."

Mr Pitt said if an employee believed a decision to adjust their multiple was an inappropriate application of the law, they could appeal under the Judicial Review Act.

He said the bill was no secret and accused the LNP of scaremongering.

"Sometimes an employee's permanent salary is increased artificially - for instance, because irregularly paid amounts such as loading are included," Mr Pitt said.

"This creates an immediate increase in the employee's defined benefits entitlement.

"While there is an immediate increase for those employees with a defined benefit account, those other employees with an accumulation account receive no such increase.

"That is not fair ... It is about making sure that co-workers who sit next to each other are treated in the same and equitable way."

The LNP did not oppose the bill, but opposed clause 68, which addressed the ability to change multiples.

The bill also allows state government and council workers to choose their own superannuation fund.