On Thurs 2 April, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was asked whether he had considered cutting the pay of workers in non-essential parts of the public service. He replied: "Those are ideas I guess that will be floated and the Minister of State Services and the State Services Commissioner will, no doubt, be talking around that."
Our regular Historian, Grant Morris of Victoria University looks at an a historical precedent for such cost cutting - the Great Depression.
Members of the Coalition Cabinet of 1931. In the front row are (L-R): E A Ransom, J G Coates, G W Forbes, W D Stewart, A T Ngata and J A Young. In the back row are (L-R): D Jones, J G Cobbe, A Hamilton and R Masters. Photo: https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23104438
