NSW politicians and bureaucrats pay freeze to save taxpayers $250 million

NSW’s highest earning politicians and bureaucrats - some who rake in as much as $600,000 a year - will have their wages frozen with the money saved going towards increasing the salaries for frontline workers.

State politicians and public sector fat cats will cop a two year wage freeze, allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to be redirected to frontline workers.

The NSW Cabinet on Monday night ticked off on Premier Chris Minns’ plan to freeze the wages of politicians and top-paid public servants for two years in a belt-tightening measure expected to save $250 million.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that cabinet on Monday night signed off on legislation which would implement the pay freeze, impacting thousands of public service senior executives earning on average $272,000 per year.

It will include Department Secretaries, agency Chief Executive Officers, executive office holders, commissioners, and judicial officers.

Politicians – who earn a base salary of $172,576 – will also have their pay frozen for two years.

NSW Premier Chris Minns. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Annual wages for MPs increased from $169,192 in July last year.

The pay freeze, which will come into effect from July, is part of a pre-election pledge to cut spending on the bloated bureaucracy.

The government also plans to cut the number of top-paid public servants by 15 per cent.

The public service belt-tightening is expected to save $619 million in total.

According to Labor estimates before the election, taxpayers are copping a $1 billion wage bill every year for senior executives across NSW government agencies, departments, and state-owned corporations.

Some top bureaucrats earn a yearly salary of more than $600,000 – nearly six times the wage of an average nurse.

Transport for NSW is expected to bear the brunt of the senior executive cull.

The money saved by freezing the pay of senior executives and politicians will go towards increasing salaries of frontline workers like teachers, nurses, and paramedics.

Senior ministers are currently locked in a standoff with union leaders over the plan to boost public sector wages, with Mr Minns under increasing pressure to come good on his election promise.

“We have inherited a challenging budget, but budgets are about priorities,” Mr Minns said.

“Our priority is rebuilding our essential services and investing in frontline workers,” he said.

The former government also pledged to cut spending on top-paid bureaucrats before the 2019 election.

The Coalition promised to cut spending on the state’s highest paid public servants by 10 per cent each year, but failed to do so.

The number of government sector senior executives exploded by 419 per cent under the Coalition, increasing from 708 in 2010 to a whopping 3680 in 2021.