The tribunal announced the increases on Tuesday.
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Ms Neville said a day later she was surprised by the size of her pay rise.
"I feel absolutely that I am well paid," she said. "But I work hard for it as I should and as every politician should.
"I understand that people feel that this is excessive. As I said, it wasn't what I had expected.
"But that's what happens when you set up an independent process and you stop politicians deciding their own pay."
Mr Andrews said the independent process had been set up to end forever the practice of state politicians setting their own pay rates.
The three-member Remuneration Tribunal, appointed by the government in June, hired private firm Mercer to try to calculate the dollar value of state MPs' work.
The consultants compared the number of parliamentary sitting days, MPs’ productivity, movements in the wage price index and other indices before recommending a salary range for a backbencher of between $171,400 and $202,800, with a “midpoint” of $187,100.
The Premier was adamant on Wednesday that the public sector wages policy was not going to change.
“My pay, the pay of politicians has not been set by me," Mr Andrews said in Shepparton.
"The wages policy of the government has to be set by the government so there is a very big difference."
He said the final outcomes on pay and conditions that had been agreed with the state’s police, paramedics, public servants and other employees would be "fair".
“The wages policy is as stated," the Premier said.
"The Treasurer ... has laid that out very clearly and I’ve got no plans to change it.”
Mr O’Brien said he had not yet read the tribunal’s 160-page report supporting its decision.
“I’m not sure it’s fully justified,” he said.
“The responsibility of people like the Premier is a very big responsibility, but does that mean the current incumbent deserved [the pay rise]? I don’t know.”
Public sector unions were vowing on Wednesday to take the politicians’ pay rises to the bargaining table in the current round of talks on new workplace deals.
United Voice, which represents some paramedics, said its members in the ambulance service were “outraged” at the news of the pay rises.
“We’re looking at a situation where Victoria would have the best-paid politicians but the worst-paid paramedics,” said the union’s Victorian Secretary Ben Redford.
“By accepting this pay rise he is sending a message that politicians are worth five times more than paramedics in this state.”
Noel Towell is State Political Editor for The Age
Charlotte is a reporter for The Age.
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