Fair Go? spokeswoman: Amethyst DeWilde, 51, Adelaide, on the disability support pension.

Wants to know: How many taxpayers’ dollars are going towards politicians’ incomes as stacked up against income supports payments like Newstart?

Sydney Policy Lab says: We looked into it and discovered that Australian politicians have become increasingly disconnected – financially speaking – from the people they represent. Below we contrast the remuneration of politicians with people on Newstart and outline how this may change after the upcoming federal election.

What’s the problem with Newstart?

Newstart is a support payment for people who are unemployed, aged 22 or over, and who are able to meet certain conditions by performing particular jobseeking activities in return for the payment, known as “mutual obligations”. As of 2017 there were 850,558 people on Newstart (752,430) and youth allowance (92,128), the equivalent payment for people under 21. A single adult with no children on Newstart now receives $277.85 a week, regarded as being well below the poverty line of $433 a week, so people on Newstart are generally unable to cover the basic costs of housing, food, healthcare and transport. Beyond the economic pressures, people living in poverty can experience malnutrition and social exclusion. Vulnerable communities are particularly impacted, for example people with living with physical and mental disabilities.

There has been no significant raise in the Newstart rate for more than 25 years. From 1993 to 2007 Newstart stagnated, as did the Australian minimum wage and the aged pension. Since 2007 the Australian median wage has also stagnated along with these other support payments; the continued rise in average wages points towards widening inequality between the richest Australians and everyone else, with people on Newstart at the very bottom. If this wasn’t worrying enough, Australia’s welfare system has become heavily conditional over a similar period, with people forced on to questionable programs such as the ParentsNext and compulsory income management.

How about politicians – are they struggling too?

Not financially they aren’t. The base salary for a member or senator of the Australian parliament, set by the Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal, is $207,100. This is almost three times more than the median wage and about 15 times as much as people on Newstart. Members of parliament get a number of allowances on top of this base salary, including for travel, accommodation, communications, electorate offices and staff. Ministers and other office holders get a whole lot more, with shadow ministers earning at least $248,520, cabinet ministers $357,247 and the prime minister $548,460. Whereas most working Australians get 9.5% superannuation, politicians elected since 2004 receive 15.4%. Those elected before 2004 receive an annual pension of between $150,000 and $200,000 a year.

Since the early 1990s the salaries of Australian parliamentarians have generally risen in a similar fashion to the average wage. Their base wage also leapt by 31.3% in 2012, from $140,910 to $185,000. In real terms, the base salary of members and senators of the Australian parliament has risen by almost $80,000 since 1933. In itself that is more than the current total average wage, let alone the more indicative median wage – or the tiny amount people on Newstart are expected to live on, $13,926 a year.

More than 770,000 people receive Newstart at a cost of approximately $11bn, an average of around $14,500 a person. In comparison 226 members of parliament take home almost $73m a year in taxpayer dollars in base salary and additional salaries for roles such as being a minister or chairing a committee, at an average of $243,035 for each politician. On top of their generous superannuation allowances, they receive an office/communications allowance of $109,370 to $243,144 a year and an electorate allowance of $32,000 to $46,000, depending on the size of their electorates.

There is evidence that higher salaries for politicians increases the education level, type of profession and political experience of people in office; this presumes that society needs and wants people now in high-paid jobs to become politicians. The question here is: do we want an elite-driven model of parliamentary democracy or a representative one? Australian politicians are increasingly career politicians, members of a disconnected political elite. While 50% of the population owns a property, 96% of federal politicians do; 48% own one or more investment properties, compared with 10% of the population. As of March 2017, 50% of all federal liberal MPs and 55% of Labor MPs were former staffers, party officials, electorate officers or ministerial advisers. Once politicians leave parliament many remain part of the elite, using their political contacts to lobby for interest groups, or taking senior well-paid roles in the public or private sector. Even before they entered parliament, 11.9% of our current federal politicians had worked as political consultants or lobbyists.

Is there any change on the horizon?

The Australian Council of Social Service-led Raise the Rate campaign is pushing for an increase in Newstart of $75 a week to $348 a week (still below their estimated poverty line). The Australian Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has spoken about poverty in a way that signifies he’s aware of the scale of the problem; but Labor has only announced a post-election review of Newstart. This suggests the party remains concerned about political damage from saying it wants to raise the rate. Similarly, Labor has promised to review programs including ParentsNext, yet intends to maintain its much-criticised mandatory nature. The Australian Greens support increasing Newstart by $75 a week and removing “punitive” compulsory measures such as compulsory income management. If post-election the Greens are in a position to influence Labor government policy, as they were after the 2010 election, they may exert pressure on Labor in this policy area.

There are examples of politicians voluntarily reducing their pay in recognition of the equality gap between politicians and the people they represent. The Brisbane Greens councillor Jonathan Sri donates half his annual salary of $157,782 to charities. Another housing activist turned politician is the Barcelona mayor, Ada Colau, who cut salaries and benefits for officials in Barcelona on her election, and slashed her own salary from €140,000 to €28,600. In Australia, no major political party is now advocating for a reduction in the base pay for federal members and senators.

• Reporting in this series is supported by VivCourt through the Guardian Civic Journalism Trust