Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ruled out following New Zealand's move to cut pay for federal government ministers and public service chiefs.
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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced all ministers and public service chiefs will take a 20 per cent pay cut for six months.
Mr Morrison said the government preferred the current pay freeze for politicians and top-ranking public servants, rather than a cut.
"It's not something that's being considered," he told 6PR radio on Wednesday.
He said public servants were working hard to deliver important coronavirus response measures, including wage subsidies.
"They do a great job and they're as much on the frontline saving people's livelihoods frankly as nurses working in hospitals," the prime minister said.
"Everyone is working hard here. Everyone who is in a job is in an essential job. I just want to support them in those jobs so I'm not keen to get into a competition."
Ms Ardern said the pay cut was about showing leadership rather than making a meaningful change to the budget.
"It's an acknowledgement of the hit many New Zealanders are taking right now," she said.
But Treasurer Josh Frydenberg shot down suggestions Australia should follow suit.
"We have frozen the pay increases for politicians here and for public servants," he told reporters in Canberra.
"That's the action we have taken."
Australian Associated Press
