Vic: MP is receiving a five figure pension, report

AAP General News (Australia)
04-04-2001
Vic: MP is receiving a five figure pension, report

Independent Victorian MP RUSSELL SAVAGE says former Labor MP TAYFUN EREN should never
have received a parliamentary pension.

It's been reported that Mr EREN was receiving a pension of between $48,000 and $52,000
a year on medical grounds, after serving only three years in state parliament.

Mr SAVAGE has told radio 3AW that Mr EREN should never have got the pension -- having
lost pre-selection and then claiming he couldn't work as an MP.

State parliamentary members are required to serve three terms in order to receive a
pension unless extraordinary medical grounds apply.

Mr EREN, 42, was the Labor member for Doutta Galla in the upper house from 1996 to 1999.

He's told 3AW that he'd been to hell and back in the last four years, and his his wife
committed suicide 12 months into his parliamentary term.

He says he's been ill ever since.

BRUCE CHAMBERLAIN, who was a trustee of the parliamentary superannuation fund at the
time, says when Mr EREN's application for a pension was made, the trustees were guided
by professional advice.

Mr CHAMBERLAIN says Mr EREN had suffered from a psychiatric illness and stressed that
the disability payment lasted as long as the disability continued and was not a pension
for life.

AAP RTV tsc/clr/jn

KEYWORD: EREN (MELBOURNE)

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