Monday, 17 May 2021 16:30

Good wicket

Written by Rural News Group

font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email

OPINION: This old mut would like to tip his hat to the Government for its move to extend pay freezes for the highly-paid walk-short brigade who infest Wellington - public servants.

Public Service Minister Chris Hipkins recently announced that public servants earning more than $60,000 will only be offered pay increases under select circumstances for the next three years and there will be no pay increases for those earning more than $100,000.

However, those earning less than $60,000 - abiut a quarter of the sector - will still see pay increases.

And before anyone sheds a tear about this, they might consider that since Labour took office in late 2017 the public service has increased in size by 10,000 people.

During this period, the number of bureaucrats earning more than $100,000 has grown by 43%, from 10,159 in 2018 to 15,055 now.

Not a bad wicket for a job for life!

More like this

Leaky waka

OPINION: Was the ASB Economic Weekly throwing shade on Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr when reporting on his speech in Washington recently?

Know-it-alls

OPINION: A reader recently had a shot at the various armchair critics that she judged to be more than a bit preachy, telling sheep farmers how they "must learn" and "embrace change" and various other platitudes that armchair critics bandy about on LinkedIn and on the speaker circuit in 'NZ agbiz'.

Mixed legacy

OPINION: You're never as good as when you're dead, and with due respect to Theo Spierings' family, the Hound can't let the death of the former Fonterra CEO pass without mentioning the parlous state he left Fonterra in when he exited in 2018 - having pocketed well north of $30 million over seven years.

Dead in the water

OPINION: In a victory for common sense over virtue signalling, David Parker's National Policy Statement (NPS) work on freshwater is now dead in the water.

'Mea culpa'

OPINION: The Reserve Bank’s rate cut is great news, albeit a bit late, but your old mate agrees with Act leader David Seymour that the cut – with more to come – is a “multi-billion dollar mea culpa” by the RBNZ.

Featured

ASB joins NZ Dairy awards' national sponsor family

The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards has added ASB Bank to its national sponsor family.

LCAs tackle false narratives

The quest to measure, report and make sense of the energy that goes into food production has come a long way in the past 25 years.

OSPRI's costly software upgrade

Animal disease management agency OSPRI has announced sweeping governance changes as it seeks to recover from the expensive failure of a major software project.

Organic dairying - a natural fit for Māori

Driving down Broadlands Road, northeast of Taupo there's a cluster of 19 Pāmu dairy farms around what is known as the Wairakei Estate.

Organic sector backtracks on GE

Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ) says the Government’s new gene editing and genetic modification reforms could leave New Zealand as an outlier on the global stage.

Weak supply keeping prices high

Weaker milk production in the Northern Hemisphere is keeping dairy prices high.

National

National catchment advocacy group elects first chair

A North Canterbury farmer has been elected as the first chair of Aotearoa New Zealand Catchment Communities (ANZCC).

New tricks from food science at international conference

Can discarded beef skins become premium dog food? Would camel milk work for your morning flat white? These are just…

Food charity to hold online auction

Meat the Need, New Zealand’s dedicated charity delivering locally sourced protein meals to food-insecure communities, is launching an online National…