Qld deputy knew of MP pay hike: hearing DEPUTY Premier Jeff Seeney may have known the full extent of massive pay hikes for Queensland MPs earlier than he let on. State politicians were awarded a $57,000 base pay rise on July 1 after Crown Law found that former Premier Anna Bligh had unlawfully frozen wages in 2009. But Mr Seeney, who was recently acting premier, didn't mention that senior office holders' pay was linked to the base salary and they'd pocket even more. The opposition publicly revealed the full extent of the rises on July 9. Premier Campbell Newman would receive a whopping $120,000 wage increase and ministers, an extra $90,000. Mr Seeney told reporters that day that he had not realised the full scope of the increases. But the director-general of the department of premier and cabinet, Jon Grayson, says he outlined the additional pay in a brief signed off by Mr Seeney on July 3. "It is my role as director-general to brief the acting premier, which I did," he told a budget estimates hearing. As I described subsequent to the decision that he took, and that occurred on the 3rd of July. I did not speak with the premier on his holiday. The government has established a new independent tribunal which will set the remuneration of MPs by mid-October.