PM Transcripts

FOR PPRSS St.' tement by the Prime -Minister
RGIiI\ T rNiNCL: i;. SS
The recent decisions of the Conciliation Commission
regarding margins and the application in a number of cases of the
marginal percentage increase even to high salaries made it
necessary for the Public Service Board to make increases right
along the line in the Second, Third and Fourth Divisions of the
Commonwealth Civil Service, the top adjustment being P775 a year.
These increases are being in effect challeneged by the Public
Service Associations on the ground that they do not represent a
285) adjustment. These changes have, however, made it necessary
to review the salaries of Permanent Heads and certain Statutory
Officers since, without substantial adjustment, many of them would be
receiving less than ' Second Division officers employed under them.
The salaries of these officers are ithin the authority
of the Cabinet which ha. s now decided to approve an increase of
œ 900 a year in the salaries of Permanent Heads. The salaries of
the principal officers of Statutory Corporations and those others
which are determined by the Government will now, be reviewed in the
light of this decision. The date of adjustment will be the 3rd
December, 1959, which is the gener.. l date applying to other sections
of the Commonwealth Public Service.
Cabinet also decided that the Secretary of the Department
of External Affairs should be placed in the higher of the two
categories which ap-ly to Heads of Depr. tnments.
I think I should emphasise the fact that these changes
in salary, together with those previously announced, have been
made unavoidable because of the new doctrine which appears to have
been adopted that the salary even of a highly paid executive should
be divided into the basic wage plus a margin and that that margin
should v. ry just as does the margin of a skilled tradesman, such
as a fitter and turner. e know. of no other country in the
world in which such a strange and indeed dangerous conception applies.
Should it become accepted as a settled doctrine there may well be
damaging consequences in Australia.
CANB EPRRA.
llth February, 1960. 1