Wage bill for top public servants soars under Andrews Government

The explosion in the number and cost of top public servants has come despite a promise from Labor to cut the number of executive bureaucrats.

The cost of fat-cat public servants has tripled in just six years, with more than twice as many executives working in the Victorian public service than when Daniel Andrews came to power.

A Herald Sun analysis of executive pay in the annual ­reports of Victorian government departments shows that since 2015, the wage bill for top public servants has jumped from $99.2m to $327.5m in the last financial year.

In the same period of time the number of executives employed in government departments has more than doubled from 675 to 1471, according to figures released by Victoria’s Public Sector Commission in the week before Christmas.

These figures also show the growth in the number of executives in government departments has vastly outstripped growth in public sector agencies such as the TAC, police and emergency services.

The explosion in the number and cost of top public servants has come despite a promise from Labor in opposition to cut the number of executive bureaucrats if it came to power.

The wage bill for top public servants has soared under the Andrews Government

Some of the biggest growth has been in the Mr Andrews’ Department of Premier and Cabinet.

According to DPC’s 2014-15 annual report in 2015, there were 41 DPC executives who between them were paid $9.2m. This year’s annual report says there are now 170 executives in DPC who between them are paid $33m.

In Labor’s first year in office there were 421 full-time positions within DPC. By this year had more than doubled to 1016.

Yet before the 2014 state election, Labor pledged to save $39m over four years by dropping the executive headcount.

The party’s then finance spokesman Robin Scott complained that “as the Liberal government has sacked Victorian public servants, the ratio of executive officers to Victorian public servants has increased, meaning there are less employees per executive”.

Since then that ratio has increased. In 2015, executives made up 1.8 per cent of the Victorian public service. According to the latest PSC figures, by last June it was 2.9 per cent.

While since 2015 the total number of executives across all the whole public sector has risen by 30 per cent, the number of top public servants in central departments has increased by 117 per cent.

Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said: “Daniel Andrews should be supporting local jobs, small business and communities doing it tough, but ­instead he’s gone on a fat-cat hiring spree.”

A government spokesman said the public service worked in complex and challenging environments. “It has never been more important to ensure we have the right people … and that they are resourced appropriately,” he said.

Originally published as Wage bill for top public servants soars under Andrews Government