Queensland public servant fat cats earning more than Premier

PUBLIC servant fat cats are earning up to $1.2 million a year to run Queensland’s ballooning bureaucracy, with more than a dozen departmental heads now paid more than the Premier.

FAT cats are earning up to $1.2 million a year to run Queensland’s ballooning bureaucracy, with more than a dozen departmental heads now paid more than the Premier.

The top-paid public servant is Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) chief executive Philip Noble, who earned a $1.22 million pay package — including a $699,000 base salary and a $469,000 bonus — in 2017/18.

Former Cairns train driver blows whistle on naps at the wheel

Queensland rail fail: Taxpayers to pay $10 million towards modifying New Generation Rollingstock

Queensland Rail boss Nick Easy earned a $755,000 salary package including base pay of $666,000 — more than Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who earns $538,460 a year.

Police Commissioner Ian Stewart pocketed a $39,000 pay rise to earn a $508,000 base salary as part of a $614,000 package that included superannuation, a car and long service leave benefits.

art for fatcat execs story

The Courier Mail’s analysis of financial records, from a document dump of 72 government reports released over the long weekend, reveals that more than a dozen public servant mandarins pocketed more than the Premier’s $400,000 base salary last financial year.

Dave Stewart, the director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, was paid a $654,000 base salary — $254,000 more than his boss, Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young scored a $67,000 pay rise to earn a $622,000 pay package, including base pay of $534,000.

Dr Young earned even more than her boss, Health Department director-general Michael Walsh, whose $607,000 pay package included a $557,000 salary.

Transport and Main Roads director-general Neil Scales earned a base salary of $556,000 with a $632,000 pay package — $67,000 more than his predecessor pocketed the previous year.

Under-Treasurer Jim Murphy.

Under-Treasurer Jim Murphy was paid a $612,000 salary to run the state’s Treasury, as part of a $700,000 package.

Housing and Public Works director-general Liza Carroll scored a $40,000 pay rise, with a $439,000 base salary within a package worth $513,000.

The fattest salaries went to finance boffins at the QTC, where five managers were paid a total of $4 million during 2017/18 — including a $1 million pay package for Grant Bush, the managing director of funding and markets.

The QTC annual report states that most QTC employees are sourced from financial markets so “it is crucial that QTC’s employment practices are competitive’’.

It paid lucrative bonuses “to differentiate and reward outstanding organisational, group and individual performance’’.

The QTC funded the state government’s $7 billion borrowing program and delivered a $94 million operating profit in 2017/18.

But it lost $194 million managing public servants’ defined benefit superannuation scheme, which had delivered a $224 million profit the previous year.

QTC had guaranteed Treasury an annual return of $2.1 billion on the superannuation assets under a long-term administrative arrangement, but only delivered a $1.9 billion return.

The Palaszczuk government has hired an extra 27,500 public servants since winning power in 2015, with 267,895 workers now on the public payroll.