The Minns Labour Government has begun enforcing a two-year salary freeze for New South Wales lawmakers in order to fulfil an election promise.
Senior state officials, such as departmental secretaries, agency CEOs, holders of executive offices, commissioners, and judicial officers, will be included in the freeze.
As Labour plans to reinvest the money into crucial services like schools and hospitals, the NSW Treasury says that it might save taxpayers $260 million over the course of four years.
They will also increase the salary of front-line employees, whose salaries were frozen during the previous administration.
On Tuesday morning, Premier Chris Minns declared the freeze, saying, “Just like we promised.”
The Premier declared, “We promised to freeze politicians’ pay, and our bill accomplishes just that.
“The budget we inherited is difficult, but budgets are about priorities.
Rebuilding our basic services and spending money on frontline employees are our top priorities.
According to Special Minister of State John Graham, the Labour administration’s major priority is to expand the public sector.
“Our predecessors frozen the pay packets of frontline workers, while senior executive salaries hit $1 billion,” Mr. Graham added.
Reinvesting in vital workers and the public sector are the main topics here.
We’re capping the upper end of the service in order to reinvest in front-line personnel. We can increase capacity in the public sector and prevent vital personnel from leaving the state with the help of this senior executive and politician wage cap.
“Across the nation’s public sector, the NSW Government provides some of the finest remuneration for senior executives.
NSW will continue to draw in the top public service talent despite the wage restrictions.
The salary freeze, according to NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson, won’t completely fix the issue, but it might still have an impact.
“Everyone’s got to tighten their belt, and if we can save a couple hundred million dollars over two years by freezing the pay of politicians and senior public servants and redirect that money to support the wage increases of nurses, teachers, and frontline workers, I think that’s great – every dollar does count,” Ms. Jackson said to Laura Jayes of Sky News Australia.
Budgets are about making decisions, therefore I believe this is a decent starting point. It’s not the full race or the full marathon, but you have to start somewhere.
The Statutory and Other Offices Remuneration Amendment Bill 2023 will implement the salary freeze.
After the law is implemented on July 1, 2023, there won’t be any pay increases for two fiscal years.
