On April 12, New Zealand PM Jacinda Adern attracted international attention by announcing a six-month pay cut of 20 per cent for herself, her ministry and the country's public sector chief executives.
At the time, Ms Adern said it was important politicians show "leadership and solidarity" with those doing it hard in NZ because of COVID-19.
The policy is said to cost Ms Adern some $NZ47,000 ($43,900) in lost salary.
At the National Press Club on Tuesday, Network Ten journalist Peter van Onselen asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison that if Australians were truly "all in this together" - as he liked to say - would he consider a NZ-style pay cut, given he was "the third highest paid world leader", with his cabinet earning "twice what the UK cabinet does"?
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"Well, Peter, I have no plans to make any changes to those arrangements," the PM said, adding that federal MPs were paid under the same rules "we're applying to public servants right across the board".
That was a reference to a 12-month freeze in federal public service pay, announced with little fanfare during the coronavirus commotion by the parliamentary secretary assisting the PM, Ben Morton, on April 9.
. . . I have no plans to make any changes [like NZ] . . . we're not singling anyone out when it comes to those issues and I will just keep doing a good job. That's my plan and I will be accountable to Australians for that job.
PM Scott Morrison
On Wednesday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed that NSW was also moving to restrain public service pay, with a 12-month freeze she said would "save taxpayers" about $3 billion.
Obviously aware that she had been lavishly praising frontline public servants - particularly nurses and teachers - during the coronavirus crisis, Ms Berejiklian and her Treasurer Dominic Perrottet would have known that hitting them in the hip pocket would be a divisive call.
The "carrot" to the pay-freeze "stick" is what Mr Perrottet said was an "unprecedented" 12-month guarantee against forced redundancies for all public servants except senior executives.
He described the freeze as the first public sector pay policy change in nine years - an un-named reference to the O'Farrell government's 2011 law that capped public sector pay increases to 2.5 per cent a year - a policy already used to keep the government's wages bill in check.
Fiscal conservatives often target wage costs in difficult times but the alternative view is that wage growth boosts spending, taxes and the broader economy.
Labor and the unions are furious, and the government will need cross-bench support to turn the pay freeze proposal into law.
As things stand, that is anything but certain.
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