Pay freezes are de facto pay cuts

“Public servants earning more than $60,000 will only be offered pay increases under exceptional circumstances for the next three years.” At best it was a poor choice of words by Robertson and Hipkins. A deceitful coup at worse.

The neoliberal Kiwi obsession on public debt has historically been an excuse for economic austerity measures.

But they have been proven wrong time and again. New Zealand's public debt has been and will continue to be among the lowest in the OECD (even after the Covid budgets). We are significantly below those examples of “economic responsibility” in

Germany or Switzerland (Trading Economics).

Our economy grew nearly 30 per cent in the last 10 years.

Yet, public service wage increases were well under 20 per cent - in some cases, not keeping up with inflation

– a de facto pay cut. But somebody is raking it in. Between $60,000 and $100,000 salary increases will only be available if there is “serious recruitment pressure”.

Meanwhile, the undertaxed private sector wealthy get off scot-free. They will continue to buy multiple milliondollar properties to sell tax free with windfall profits after 10 years (no CGT under Jacinda's watch).

Our deteriorating inequality will worsen.

The Greens, to their credit, have been staunchly opposed to this oversight. And also recent pressure from the public has forced Labour to compromise so that they will at the very least keep up with inflation in the $60,000-100,000 salary range. That is a step in the right direction. BRIT BUNKLEY Whanganui

Learning from experience

In response to D Partner (Letters, May 11): Nowhere in my letter did I refer to recompense.

If he feels that historical dealings between Ma¯ ori and non-Ma¯ ori are irrelevant in today’s world then I ask does he consider that all history is irrelevant? In very simplistic terms that would indicate that anything that occurred yesterday is not relevant today.

I have learned from many of my experiences. If we cannot learn from our history and development how can we ever progress?

Say what you like, history is littered with examples of people learning from things that happened to them and improving a product or process because of that. Many of these learnings can be applied to race relations in this country.

To make the statement that you question Ma¯ ori desire to patronise the “new” system is your prerogative as is mine to question your desire to do likewise.