Huge pay rises for senior South Australian public servants

A PAY rise of almost $125,000 for the incoming chief of Premier Jay Weatherill’s department has provoked Opposition claims the Government has “warped priorities”.

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A PAY rise of almost $125,000 for the incoming chief of Premier Jay Weatherill’s department has provoked Opposition claims the Government has “warped priorities”.

Department of Premier and Cabinet chief executive Kym Winter-Dewhirst, who took up his post last month, will take home a salary of $550,000 a year.

Mr Winter-Dewhirst, a former Labor staffer who was a senior vice-president at BHP Billiton before taking up the new job, replaced Jim Hallion, who was on $425,000 a year.

Premier Jay Weatherill earns less than senior public servants.

Kym Winter-Dewhirst

Mr Weatherill, who earns about $250,000 less than his department head, defended the decision as vital to attract the best candidates.

Opposition treasury spokesman Rob Lucas, who obtained the details of Mr Winter-Dewhirst’s contract under Freedom of Information, said Mr Weatherill had revealed his “warped ­priorities”.

“Mr Winter-Dew­hirst is getting paid more, despite the department being a much smaller department now because a number of key responsibilities, including art and Aboriginal affairs, have been moved into other departments,” Mr Lucas said.

“At a time when Mr Weatherill is closing the Repatriation Hospital, cutting emergency department services and slugging families with massive Emergency Services Levy increases, only he can explain how he justifies such an outrageous pay increase for any public servant.”

At the end of last month, 11 DPC executives were sacked in one day and replaced with a new executive team, which included some other former Labor staffers.

“Public servants within DPC will be white hot with rage when they hear about Mr Weatherill’s decision to give such a massive pay increase,” Mr Lucas said.

Since the last election, Mr Weatherill has hired five new department chief executives, including Mr Winter-Dew­hirst.

“I announced after the election we would renew the public sector and department chief executives,” he said. “It is a competitive market and we aimed to attract the best candidates to lead our departments.

“We now have chief executives of the highest quality leading our state agencies.”

The others are Malcolm Jackman, who heads Defence SA and is paid $400,000 a year. He replaced Andrew Fletcher, who was previously the highest-paid chief executive on $553,000 a year.

Michael Deegan

Malcolm Jackman

Mr Jackman took a huge pay cut for the position. He earned about $1.2 million a year as chief of Elders.

State Development chief executive Don Russell gets paid $450,000 a year to head the new department.

Transport head Michael Deegan is on $420,000, more than predecessor Rod Hook, who earned $379,000 a year.

New Environment chief Sandy Pitcher takes home $360,000 a year, less than former head Allan Holmes, who was on $369,000 a year.

Mr Weatherill is paid just more than $300,000 a year.

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