Alexander Gillespie: Why a wage freeze ignores the lessons of history

Alexander Gillespie *
Opinion - With the government facing a serious backlash over its public sector wage freeze policy, that sound you hear could be the ghost of Rob Muldoon chuckling.
Rob Muldoon knew how tempting - and difficult - pay freezes could be, Alexander Gillespie writes.
Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library
As finance minister in the Holyoake government (1960-72) and later as prime minister (1975-81), he knew how tempting - and difficult - pay freezes could be.
That did not stop him using them, but not even he would have contemplated what the current Labour government has announced.
Targeting only public servants earning over $60,000, for three years and with no apparent provision for inflation or cost of living increases, would have been anathema to Muldoon.

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