I contribute to debate in support of the Statutory and Other Offices Remuneration Amendment Bill 2023. The bill will amend the Statutory and Other Offices Remuneration Act to temporarily freeze any increases in remuneration for senior office holders in the public service. In effect, this puts an end to the terrible message the previous Government sent to frontline workers when top executives received pay rises over and above the consumer price index and well above wages growth. I will offer some examples shortly. I appreciate that we should endeavour to attract the best and brightest to the public service. We need them to run government departments, which are big apparatuses and have multimillion dollar—sometimes billion-dollar—budgets. We should seek to attract the best people to those jobs and, in order to do so, there needs to be some level of competition with private sector wages and salaries.

However, it is unconscionable to continue down the path of massive pay rises for senior executives in the public service while supressing wages for everyday public sector workers. When I talk about public sector workers, I am talking about the nurses who did everything humanly possible through the COVID pandemic. I am talking about the firies, who go over and above each and every day—whether it is a fire or a rescue. I am talking about train drivers and teachers—those essential workers who should be and who are being recognised by this Government, despite the actions of the previous Government.

Earlier, I mentioned top executive pay rises in the public service. A Sydney Morning Herald article from the end of last year showed that at NSW Health, which has over 130,000 public sector workers, executive salaries account for almost 20 percent of the total staff cost. When one thinks of the health department, one thinks of hospitals and health clinics. One thinks of nurses and frontline workers. But one-fifth of the salary budget goes to executives. That needs to be corrected, and this bill goes some way to doing that.

At the end of 2022, the salary of the top executives at Infrastructure NSW represented 49 per cent of total staff costs. Whereas one-fifth is taken up at NSW Health, the salary of the top executives at Infrastructure NSW, an agency with some 130 staff, alone accounted for basically half of total staff cost. There is an imbalance, and the bill seeks to address that. Economic orthodoxy will tell you that when the Federal budget is in surplus and interest rates are increasing, that the economy is going great. But I do not think that anyone would agree with that at this point. When you get down to the micro level, that is certainly not the case. It highlights what an issue inequality is in the economy at the moment. We can see inequality here in the salary discrepancies.

It does not just stop at senior public servants. We have just dealt with the Parliamentary Remuneration Amendment Bill 2023, which will freeze increases to the basic salary of members of Parliament. Both of these bills are responsible and prudent. The savings from the bills will allow the Government to deliver a well-earned pay rise to nurses and teachers, who most definitely deserve it. I chose to speak on the bill because my electorate of Leppington is home to many essential workers, including nurses, schoolteachers, train drivers and firies. During the election campaign I heard stories about how they were all overworked and undervalued under the previous Government.

At pre-poll and early voting I had the pleasure of seeing the current shadow Treasurer at my pre-poll booth. There were multiple occasions where he got into arguments with voters. In my mind, that is not a good idea. They were essential workers and argued with the shadow Treasurer about their treatment under the then Government. A train driver who was a proud member of the Rail, Tram, and Bus Union refused to accept a how-to-vote card from the shadow Treasurer, and they got into a bit of a barney. The train driver recalled the then transport Minister referring to train drivers who were taking industrial action as terrorists. The now shadow Treasurer claimed that that was not the case. Members know that is the case.

Leppington is very close to Campbelltown and Liverpool hospitals, so many nurses live my electorate. Many of them also came through the booths. One nurse told a story about how she worked in the children's ward and at one point was solely responsible for 30 beds. There were 30 children in the hospital and one nurse was looking after them. Again, members of the former Government were effectively gaslighting this nurse, telling her that that was not the case. I know it is the case because I have heard many stories from many nurses who tell similar stories.

The same things happened with teachers and firies. People who live in my electorate felt that they were being ignored and insulted, and they were driven to vote for the Labor Party and the Minns Labor Government. They did not just vote; they also campaigned. Many people on booths were talking to voters because the previous Government had pushed them to that point. I thank them. We are now taking action to deal with the issues by putting forward the bill.

It will also send a great signal to the people of Leppington, many of whom are dealing firsthand with the rising cost of living. Levels of mortgage stress are at their highest since August 2008, according to research by Roy Morgan. When research on levels of mortgage stress is done, postcodes in my electorate regularly rank in the top five. Dealing with the cost of living and trying to square the ledger here will be welcomed by the people of Leppington, over 50 per cent of whom are paying off a mortgage. They are feeling anxious about home loans that are about to go from fixed to variable.

The costs of tolls, groceries and power bills are also going up. Anything the Government can do to address the cost of living will no doubt be welcomed by the people of Leppington. With the money that will be saved as a result of the bill, the Government will fix the education system, repair the health system and address the appalling state of the budget, about which members have heard in recent days. Members of the former Liberal-Nationals Government used to refer to themselves as great economic managers, but I think all of that has been laid bare in recent days, especially by the Treasurer yesterday.

Members have heard the numbers. There is a $7 billion black hole and $187 billion in debt, and we have to address it somehow. This bill is one of the ways we will do it. The three credit metrics are at risk, which will potentially have an impact on our credit rating. In practical terms that means that if we lose the triple-A credit rating, that is another hit to the budget that we simply cannot afford. Put simply, the former Government managed the budget in a careless manner, and it was unsustainable. Labor is fixing that. We are making sure that spending programs are targeted and measured. Of course, in September, the Government will hand down a fiscally responsible budget as it moves on the path of fixing the State's finances. This bill is an important step in the budget repair process. I commend the bill to the House.