Call for pollies and bureaucrats to take lockdown pay cuts

Seventy-five per cent of NSW residents think public servants on more than $150,000 should share the pain with affected workers.

NSW citizens fed up with the financial pain of lockdowns are keen to see well-paid public servants share the burden to show that “we are truly ‘all in this together’”.

According to an exclusive poll of state residents commissioned by the Institute for Public Affairs, three quarters of us want to see politicians and bureaucrats on over $150,000 per year have their pay docked by 20 per cent for the duration of the Greater Sydney lockdown.

Some 50 per cent of those polled said they “strongly” agreed with the idea, while another 25 per cent said they “somewhat” agreed.

Just nine per cent said they disagreed with the idea.

And across every age group, respondents said they wanted highly paid public servants to share the pain, with those aged 25 to 34 per cent the most strongly in favour.

The results come as the state works to come to grips with the economic costs of the current lockdown, which is scheduled to run through at least August.

While some construction outside hotspot LGAs is restarting this week, the cost to the local economy of that industry’s two week snap shutdown was estimated to have cost at least $2 billion.

Many other industries, from non-takeaway hospitality to non-essential retail, are also shut down, with the Commonwealth pumping in around $750 million per week to keep businesses and employees going through a variety of disaster relief and JobSaver packages.

Politicians responsible for lockdowns would be among those whose pay would be reduced during restrictions. Picture: Dylan Robinson

At the same time, public servants have remained largely unaffected by the economic impacts of lockdowns.

On July 1 the NSW government lifted a freeze on public sector wages that came in at the start of the pandemic, giving all public servants including senior bureaucrats an up to 2.5 per cent automatic wage rise.

The move to reinstate the pay rises will cost the state an estimated $2.7 billion over the next four years.

“The Berejiklian government must listen to the people of NSW and ensure that there is equality of sacrifice of the duration of the lockdowns,” said Daniel Wild, Director of Research at the IPA.

“If we are truly ‘all in this together’, then the economic and social pain must be shared around.”

“Reducing public sector pay is not aimed at public servants but ensuring they have skin in the game. Lockdowns have an inequitable impact on society based on class: the low income working class suffer while the high income professional elite remain in safe jobs and can work from home,” he said.

The 20 per cent figure was nominated by the IPA as analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics research found that in NSW the average private sector worker is paid that much less than their public sector counterpart.

Originally published as Call for pollies and bureaucrats to take lockdown pay cuts