Tony Abbott responded to his high-profile election loss by saying he would “rather be a loser than a quitter” – but he is a big winner when it comes to his the size of his imminent parliamentary pension.

By my calculations, he will walk away from Canberra with a pension of $296,000 this year, rising in line with any future increases in the salaries of sitting MPs.

By my calculations Tony Abbott will walk away with a pension of $296,000, rising each year in line with MPs‘ base salary, & can take $1.48m of it now as an upfront lump sum 💰💰💰 https://t.co/NdmsgGehEZ #AusVotes2019 — William Summers (@william_summers) May 18, 2019

The figure is made up of 75% of the pensionable base salary of a backbench MP, or $122,903, plus 6.25% of the pensionable salary earned in his various frontbench roles, which included two years as prime minister.

Up to half of the pension can be taken upfront as a lump sum payment, which would see Abbott pocket a tasty $1.48 million now, if he chooses to do so.

Read more about how parliamentary pensions are calculated – and which MPs are entitled to get one

A lot of criticism has been thrown at Abbott during his time in Parliament (and for good reason). But any suggestion he was clinging on to his seat because of the pay and perks he got as an MP is demonstrably unfair.

His income will be far higher as an ex-MP, even before you factor in any directorships, ambassadorial positions or Sky News roles he may or may not be offered, or the free travel and office allowance he will get as an ex-prime minister.

And remember, because parliamentary pensions rise each year in line with the pay of sitting MPs, this is not $296,000 “each year”, it is merely $296,000 this year (2018/19).

Come 1 July, Tony Abbott will get a pension increase pushing it over $300,000.

Not bad for a loser.

*UPDATE 21 May 2019*

I’ve seen several stories today saying Abbott’s pension will be $307,542, not $296,000 as I have calculated. While it may be splitting hairs between the two figures, I can confidently say those stories are WRONG! They do not take into account two important factors:

The full base salary does not apply for pension calculations, there is a discount rate of around 20 percent, meaning many reported figures are actually overestimates. The figure goes up each year anyway, in line with current MPs’ salaries, which these articles do not take into account. Instead they seem to be referring back to a (wrong) 2015 article using the $307,542 overestimate and then (wrongly) assuming the figure would be the same now. The $307,542 figure was way out when the article was written four years ago – though ironically will be pretty accurate after a couple more years of MP pay rises!

The calculations are overly complex, as outlined in my previous blog post, which is why I have used a spreadsheet to calculate the various figures, which is publicly available for anyone to scrutinise.

Story by William Summers. Be nice. Give due credit.

Main image: Wikimedia (CC-BY)