Territory pollies, chief executives cop pay freeze amid budget crisis

TERRITORY politicians and top public servants will personally feel the pinch of the NT’s financial woes in budget repair plan

Chief Minister Michael Gunner and his Parliament House colleagues will have their pay frozen for the next three years as part of the government’s plan to fix the budget. Picture: Justin Kennedy

TERRITORY politicians and top public servants will personally feel the pinch of the NT’s financial woes, with their pay packets due to be frozen for the next three years.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner, who will announce the move today as part of the government’s plan for budget repair, said the freeze would save taxpayers $25 million.

Mr Gunner said the government was “taking action to fix the budget” after inheriting a $876 million deficit from the former Country Liberals government and following a $500 cut in GST revenue.

He said the plan would include “tough decisions” while protecting frontline workers, including teachers nurses and police and maximising private investment.

“We will deliver a plan to fix the budget so we can continue investing in jobs, generational change and cutting crime,” he said.

“It’s only fair that heavy lifting is also done by freezing politicians and executive pay for three years.

“We will not be taking the CLP approach of slashing and burning the public service, sacking teachers and massive increases in power prices.”

The rest of the plan to implement recommendations from former West Australian under treasurer John Langoulant, along with “immediate savings” identified in a “root and branch review”, will be announced tomorrow.

When Mr Langoulant delivered his interim review of the government’s finances in January it came with a warning that department chief executives who could not rein in spending would face the axe.

Mr Langoulant described the review as a “wake up call” for CEOs who saw budgets as “nothing more than an estimate that can be broken”.

“In WA for instance, if agencies exceeded their budget, those agencies were then subject to external review,” he said. “So the message to the agencies was if you observe your budget targets we will allow you to manage subject to those budget targets — if you don’t observe those budget targets we’ll bring an external process into your organisation to make sure that you do.

“Where one of those boards did not meet its budgets both the chief executive and the chairman were removed, so that’s the accountability which gets applied.”

The wage freeze follows an announcement last month that 300 public servant jobs would be cut in a plan to save $30 million a year.