Liberals promise to publish the salaries of top public servants online

SOUTH Australia’s department bosses earning between $350,000 and $550,000 will have their salaries published online under a Liberal promise.

Rick Persse of the Education and Child Development departments earned $471,200. Picture: Matt Loxton

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THE salaries of South Australia’s top public servants, earning up to $551,000 per year, would be published online each year, under a state Liberal election promise.

The commitment, supported by the state’s main business lobby, the union representing public sector workers and Nick Xenophon’s SA Best, would make easily accessible top-level public servants’ pay details that now are tightly guarded.

The state’s top 15 departmental bosses are on salary packages between $350,000 and $551,000 — ten are paid more than Premier Jay Weatherill’s $382,648 a year.

Copies of their contracts traditionally have not been released under Freedom of Information laws and can be viewed only by making an appointment to inspect them at the Office of the Public Sector, in Adelaide’s CBD. Opposition treasury spokesman Rob Lucas told The Advertiser a Liberal government would make viewing the salaries of the state’s department bosses easier and more transparent.

“The current process of inspecting CEO contracts is a ridiculous waste of resources and is symptomatic of a Government obsessed with secrecy,” Mr Lucas said.

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“A Marshall Liberal Government, if elected, will stop this stupidity and reveal publicly on a website the remuneration packages of all CEOs.”

Mr Lucas said the Liberals did not support performance pay and last year criticised TAFE SA for considering awarding now-former chief executive Robin Murt a bonus of up to $50,000.

In SA, broad salary bands are included in annual reports but with no further details.

When The Advertiser viewed contracts at the Public Sector office, two staff watched and no photocopies or photographs were allowed.

The contracts showed the chief executives of SA Health and the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Vickie Kaminski and Don Russell respectively, are both on salary packages of $550,000.

The average South Australian wage is $75,504 a year, according to the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.

In total, the SA’s 15 department bosses are on salary packages worth about $6.4 million a year.

Other states and territories have made significant efforts in recent years to make disclosure more transparent.

Tasmania, New South Wales and the Northern Territory all publish the details in department annual reports that are available online.

Queensland and Victorian government departments’ annual reports include salary bands like SA.

In Western Australia, a yearly determination from the Salaries and Allowances Tribunal is published online.

Vickie Kaminski of SA Health earned $551,145.

A State Government spokesman said salary brackets were publicly disclosed in the Workforce Information Report, which is made available on the Office of the Public Sector’s website.

“This provides an accurate guide of the salaries of government executives,” the spokesman said.

“For privacy reasons, the specific salaries of specific executives are not publicly disclosed.

“The Government needs to offer competitive salaries in order to attract the best talent.”

Business SA boss Nigel McBride told The Advertiser the State Government should not be obscuring what public sector staff were being paid.

“Governments shouldn’t be embarrassed or ashamed of what public sector CEOs are getting, they have key roles to play and one would expect in a national and international market that they are paid accordingly,” Mr McBride said.

“The very fact that there is this level of nervousness about this transparency helps contribute to public sentiment that these people aren’t worth what they’re paid.

“There’s a theme of transparency that we’re not seeing and it’s ironic that Jay Weatherill came in on a transparency commitment.

“The business community understands the need for top leadership when we’re dealing with a $19 billion budget but what we’re also asking for is accountability. People need to be paid what they’re worth but we need to see accountability around their agencies and departments.”

Premier and Cabinet’s Don Russell earned $550,000.

PSA general secretary Nev Kitchin said the organisation supported “transparency and accountability”.

He said public companies supplied specific executive pay that “clearly identifies” what senior bosses earnt.

“It is publicly available money that should be accounted for,” Mr Kitchin said.

“There is no reason not to display (specific) figures.”

SA Best leader Nick Xenophon said he supported publishing department chief’s salaries.

Freedom of information expert Rick Snell, from the University of Tasmania, said the salaries, packages and performance bonuses of senior public sector leaders should be made available online via searchable compensation databases.

“Most levels of the public sector are paid in conformity with publicly available rates there is no compelling reason to exclude the top 5 per cent of the public sector” Professor Snell said.

“Government agencies are publicly funded and transparency of senior executives pay and conditions should simply be the consequence of having that access to taxpayer funds.

“When someone takes on a senior public role and responsibilities the scrutiny of pay, conditions and performance should not be contentious.

“Pay transparency in the public sector ensures that heads of agencies and statutory bodies walk the walk as they urge their employees to ’do more with less”.