MPs passed a bill yesterday setting up an independent review to look at politician?s salaries.

Introducing the bill Premier Alex Scott said the approach had been adopted by other countries including the United States, Canada and Britain because it removes the practice of politicians deciding their own pay rise.

However, the Premier appeared to be softening the public up for what could be quite a substantial pay rise.

He said: ?Salaries for parliamentarians in Bermuda have fallen behind their counterparts in other jurisdictions. We must not allow parliamentarian?s salaries to fall further and further behind.?

Recently politicians awarded themselves a 4.5 percent pay rise in line with that given to civil servants. MPs get $39,428 while Senators get $26,287.

The Premier is paid $72,286 to add to his MP earnings while the Deputy Premier gets $49,285, and the Attorney General gets $110,254.

The bill will set up an eight-person committee including an accountant, a lawyer or judge, a former MP, two members nominated by the Opposition and three people appointed by the Premier.

Mr. Scott pointed out that MPs do a lot of hours of work and take a lot of flak.

He recounted tales of people calling him on 4.30 on Christmas morning to raise issues and one constituent came to his house at 11.30 p.m. and didn?t leave until the early hours of the morning when Mr. Scott took him home.

The measure had the support of the Opposition ? despite a defeated amendment to take out a clause requesting the committee look at compensation for both part-time and full-time Ministers.

Opposition House Leader John Barritt said those terms have no meaning in law but the Government argued it would point the committee in the right direction because some Ministers do other jobs while others concentrate solely on running their ministries.

Mr. Scott said seven out of 12 Ministers are full time.

The plan is to shrink Cabinet to around nine full-time Ministers running superministries, said Mr. Scott.

He wants to move away from Ministers doing outside jobs, which can lead to accusations of conflicts of interest.

But full-time Ministers need to be paid properly, said Mr. Scott.

He said: ?This is no longer a place of landed gentry.?

He said some MPs arrive at the House and ?step out of small cars or off Mobylettes?.

The Opposition put their amendment to a vote but it lost 14-10 although former PLP Minister Renee Webb gave it support.

She told later that she had warned her caucus she would do so because she said it is time to get rid of part-time Ministers altogether.

?If you cannot serve in Cabinet full-time you shouldn?t be in it,? she said. ?Out of 40,000 people we should be able to get 12 people who can make that commitment.

?If you have full-time salaries you need full-time Ministers.?

The Opposition, however, did get the House to accept two amendments to the Act.

Mr. Barritt asked for one amendment to be made to a clause which stipulated how many members of the board needed to sign reports.

The original clause stated that the Chairman and no less than two other members of the Board needed to sign.

Mr. Barritt asked that this be changed to ?no less than three members of the Board?.

The second change was a clause which stipulated that three members constituted a quorum.

Mr. Barritt asked that this be changed to four members.

Mr. Scott agreed, much to the amusement of the Opposition, and the changes to the amendment were made.