NT public servants breathe easy as counterparts in NSW, QLD suffer 12-month wage freeze

PUBLIC servants in NSW, QLD and within the Commonwealth servic have been hit by wage freezes. But what’s happening with the NT’s public servants pays?

UNLIKE their public service counterparts on the eastern seaboard, the Territory’s public servants won’t be hit by a wage freeze in the coming year the NT Government has promised.

NSW on Wednesday became the latest state to implement a 12-month public sector wage freeze, with Premier Gladys Berejiklian saying the government needed “every spare dollar” to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The wage freeze in NSW is expected to save the government $3 billion.

NT Treasurer Nicole Manison confirmed there were “no plans” to do the same here.

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“We have already implemented a 3 year pay freeze for the highest paid public servants (executive contracts),” she said.

NT Treasurer Nicole Manison. Picture: Che Chorley

“We have no plans to do the same to our police, nurses, teachers- or any other public servant.”

Public servants on executive contracts, some of whom earn upwards of $400,000 a year, were asked to take a pay freeze from August last year through to the end of the 2021/2022 financial year.

The freeze was recommended as part of former Western Australian under treasurer John Langoulant review of the Territory’s dire fiscal situation.

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The Langoulant report also recommended the government limit the annual wage increase of public servants from 2.5 per cent to $1000, regardless of their rank.

According to the NT Government’s latest budget repair update report this had yet to be implemented, though a “working group” had been established, an “implementation plan project” had been developed and terms of reference were being finalised.

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The Queensland State Government, after striking a deal with the unions, earlier this month confirmed a public service pay freeze would be in effect during the upcoming financial year.

Meanwhile, public servants within the Commonwealth Government were told in early April that wage increases would be deferred for six months as they fell due for individual workers, with the freeze in effect until April 2021.