9. Question No. 9—Public ServiceHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa) to the Minister for the Public ServiceQuestion No. 9—Public Service9. Hon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa) to the Minister for the Public Service: Why has he frozen some Public Service workers' pay for the next three years?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for the Public Service): I reject the premise of the member's question. Yesterday the Public Service Commissioner issued new pay guidance to Public Service agencies. Essentially the guidance sets out the expectation that Public Service chief executives would hold pay for higher earners and senior leaders the default position being no increases for those paid over $100000; beyond legal obligations ensure that a minimum pay rate provides a livable wage; further to this provide modest pay increases for staff roles paid below $60000; apply increases that are contractually required by existing settled agreements; and continue to fund implementation plans to close gender and ethnic pay gaps. For those earning between $60000 and $100000 pay adjustments may be considered in restricted circumstances against the criteria set in the guidance and it will require the approval of the commission. We want to focus on those on lower wages and make sure that they are the focus of increases in pay.Hon Mark Mitchell: How has hiring 10000 additional bureaucrats over the last three years at a cost of $1.3 billion per annum impacted the need for a pay freeze in the Public Service?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Again I reject the premise of the member's question and in fact it hasn't. But I would suggest that when he talks about bureaucrats he might like to think about who he's talking about. It could be the thousand extra staff employed by the Ministry of Social Development to provide among other things the wage subsidy that kept hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders in jobs. It could be the extra 500-plus staff employed by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to protect our border against COVID-19. It could be the more than 300 extra staff employed by the Ministry for Primary Industries to deal with Mycoplasma bovis which is critical to our primary industries. It could be the extra 600 or so people employed by Oranga Tamariki the vast majority of whom are social workers working with our most vulnerable children. Those are the sorts of people he's calling bureaucrats.Hon Mark Mitchell: So how will those people be affected by the Minister's policy to apply a pay restraint to them?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: It very much depends on their existing contractual arrangements. Many of the workforces that I just mentioned continue to receive step-based pay progression every year.Hon Mark Mitchell: Will teachers nurses and police officers be affected by this pay freeze?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Teachers nurses and police officers all get step-based pay progression meaning that they will move up a step on their salary scale each year automatically until they reach the top of the salary scale. We are not proposing to change that. In the case of teachers they have another 3 percent pay increase that was negotiated as part of their last pay round—that is still yet to come into force. Similarly police also I believe have a further increase still to come into effect. And of course nurses are in bargaining at the moment.Hon Mark Mitchell: How many employees will have their pay restrained?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I couldn't put a specific figure on that because it will ultimately depend on where they sit on the salary scale—for example as to whether or not they have further steps on the salary scale and a lot of public sector employees will.