HIGH-income earners should take the lead in the fight against inflation, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced this week that federal MPs would take a pay freeze this year in an effort to fight inflation.
The Government has called on big business to follow suit and apply a pay freeze on the income of executives.
Ms Gillard said everybody in the community needs to work together with the Government to try to defeat inflation.
She said high-income earners were in the best position to take the lead and show restraint.
"Part of what happened this week was politicians saying to the community we get it, we understand it, that there's a need for restraint and we are prepared to show that restraint ourselves through a wages freeze,'' Ms Gillard told ABC Television.
"What we are saying to working families is that inflation is an enemy for them.
"It is people at the upper income end who can most easily show restraint and one of the reasons that the Prime Minister decided this week on the wages freeze is politicians are in that category