Russell Norman: Government should save money by hugging more polar bears

Grant Robertson: Why does the Minister think it is acceptable to give himself an effective pay increase of $2,500 per year, while telling police officers, social workers, fire officers, prison officers, and other hard-working public servants that they have to accept a pay freeze? Hon BILL ENGLISH: In the first place, there is no pay freeze. Chief executives have a clear direction from the Government that they should be looking for pay restraint and productivity gains. Secondly, all of the groups that the member has mentioned are benefiting from tax cuts. From 1 April someone on the average wage gets the equivalent of $18.50 per week, and that is a significant boost in after-tax income which the person would not have got if he or she had voted for Labour, and that is why people did not vote for Labour. Dr Russel Norman: Can the Minister confirm that according to answers to written questions, the State services saved $4.7 million last year through Govt sustainability initiatives; if so, is he concerned that these initiatives have been axed, and even mocked by the Prime Minister as being "hug a polar bear" initiatives, when they are actually saving taxpayers many millions of dollars? Hon BILL ENGLISH: There were some very expensive and somewhat symbolic schemes that the Minister for the Environment has determined, quite sensibly, were not worth the money. I am quite sure that with the reduction in travel, conferences, and workshops, and the reduction in the production of useless, but large, strategies over the next 12 months, the State services will be emitting less carbon and causing less climate change than they have done over any of the last 9 years under the previous Government.