New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she and her Cabinet will take 20 per cent pay cuts for the next six months to reflect tough economic conditions during the COVID-19 crisis.
“This is not going to change the government books but for us it’s about leadership,” she said on Wednesday.
“It’s an acknowledgement of the hit many New Zealanders are taking right now.”
The pay cut will also be extended to New Zealand’s senior public servants.
However, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg quickly became the latest politician on this side of the Tasman to quash the idea.
“We have frozen the pay increases for politicians here, and for public servants, and Anthony Albanese was asked this question and Mathias Cormann has been asked this question, and they’ve given the answers that they have,” he said at a news briefing shortly after Ms Ardern’s announcement.
The federal government said last week it had asked the Remuneration Tribunal to impose a 12-month freeze on pay rises.
But a cut is not being contemplated.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said salaries made up a tiny percentage of the federal budget.
“I know people are taking a hard hit every day in their businesses,” he said.
“But I don’t think it’s actually helpful in a crisis to start having people turn on each other about who’s getting what.”
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said cutting pay for politicians and bureaucrats would be “essentially at the margin” of the hit to the federal budget.
“I think MPs and public servants are working very hard right now,” Senator Cormann told Sky News.
“I’m not sure how this sort of suggestion would help – in the context of the budget challenge it’s essentially at the margin.”
-with AAP
The post ‘It’s about leadership’: NZ PM, ministers take coronavirus pay cuts appeared first on The New Daily.
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