JERSEY’S new Chamber of Commerce President has warned that the Island’s future is at risk unless it can attract strong political leadership – and has argued that the biggest barrier is pay.
Speaking to the JEP for the Saturday Interview after stepping into his new role, Lee Madden said his main concern isn’t about the economy or whether a new hospital will ever get built, but whether the Island will have the right people in the States Assembly to lead through the next decade.
He said: “My biggest fear is we haven’t got the future leadership and we are not going to have the right people sitting in the States Assembly running this Island – because without good, strong, coherent, trusted leadership, we’re knackered. We need to find the future leaders who are going to take this Island forward.”
Mr Madden, who is also the founder of GR8 Recruitment, said the current pay offered to elected politicians makes it difficult to persuade experienced professionals to leave the private sector and step forward.
“Are we going to attract people from the private sector and pay them peanuts? Absolutely not. What about your kids? What about your wife? What about you? What about your partner, your husband, your wife? What about the house? Jersey is a business. And there is no business in this entire world where the leaders, the people at the top of that tree, are getting paid far less than the people that administer it.”
He added that attracting future leaders would require not only better incentives but stronger pipelines of talent and support.
Mr Madden is helping develop that through the ‘Future Leaders Jersey’ programme, run in partnership with the Institute of Directors, which gives Sixth Form students the chance to shadow senior professionals across Jersey’s business sectors.
His comments come as politicians are due to debate next week whether salaries should be paid to colleagues taking on additional responsibility as ministers or chairs of Scrutiny panels, under a proposition put forward this week.
Deputy Jonathan Renouf is seeking to change the existing law stating that all States Members must earn the same amount, currently £57,300 per year, paving the way for Jersey to emulate other jurisdictions in having different levels of salaries for elected representatives.
The former Environment Minister has not proposed precise figures for the salary of the Chief Minister, other ministers and assistant ministers, or Scrutiny chairs, suggesting that this detail should be considered during the next political term by the Island’s independent remuneration reviewer.
