Revealed: What SA government department heads are earning

The new head of Premier and Cabinet in South Australia is taking home nearly $700,000 a year and The Advertiser can reveal what other department heads are making.

South Australia’s highest paid bureaucrat is earning almost $700,000 as the Premier’s right-hand man as a row erupts over another long-term Labor staffer being parachuted into a plum role.

Department of Premier and Cabinet chief executive Damien Walker started a fortnight ago on a $697,000 package, including a $4332 car park and $63,364 superannuation.

His remuneration is almost $60,000 more than what his predecessor Nick Reade earned before Premier Peter Malinauskas sacked him in a Labor cull of top public servants after the election.

Damien Walker, new head of SA Premier and Cabinet department. Photo: Supplied

SA Labor government project tsar Rik Morris

The Premier and Commissioner for Public Sector Employment, Erma Ranieri, set the salaries.

The pay levels emerged after Treasurer Stephen Mullighan sent public servants a clear message to avoid excessive wage claims ahead of his first state budget next month.

Other senior public service executive positions are also in the firing line.

Mr Walker, headhunted from the Queensland public service, earns almost $160,000 more than the next highest paid chief, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, whose wage package is $537,950.

New Treasury boss Rick Persse and Trade and Investment head David Reynolds are each paid $530,000, an updated government league table reveals.

Mr Malinauskas earns $450,000 and Opposition Leader David Speirs $350,000.

Premier Peter Malinauskas. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

SA Leader of the Opposition David Speirs. Picture: POOL via NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

Taxpayers are paying veteran Labor staffer Rik Morris $354,145 as head of the new $2m, 10-person Premier’s Delivery Unit (PDU), to spearhead the government’s $3.1bn promises on hydrogen, education and health.

Mr Morris – the Premier’s director of strategy in opposition and a former ALP candidate – is salary sacrificing $61,117 on top of $32,195 superannuation. He also has access to a $4145 car park and unnamed “accessories”.

The Opposition, which said Mr Morris’s salary had doubled, criticised his role as “not passing the pub test” and which “reeks of jobs for the boys”.

Spokesman Matt Cowdrey said Mr Mullighan had said that every dollar spent settling a wage claim is “one less to fix ramping but apparently Labor doesn’t apply the same logic when it comes to the top end”.

Mr Walker and Mr Morris would not comment but there’s no suggestion either is not a capable person for their role. A government spokesman said “unfortunately to attract the best people … means we are competing with massive salary packages interstate”, which can be up to $1.2m.

“We believe that the salary is commensurate with attracting someone as talented and experienced as Damien Walker to come back to SA,” he said.

He said the PDU would help avoid repeating a Marshall government “failure to deliver on … commitments”.