The whopping amount Victorian taxpayers are forking out for ministerial staffers
Victorians are forking out more than $1m every week for the wages of ministerial staffers, new figures have revealed the cost is up despite the Treasurer promising to cut “some fat” from the public service.
Victorian taxpayers are paying more than $1m every week to cover the wages of ministerial staffers, new figures show.
The huge ministerial staff wages bill was revealed to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee on Tuesday, by the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) totalling $61.3m for 309 staff in 2024–25.
The figure is up more than 19 per cent from $51m in the financial year to June 2023, when former premier Daniel Andrews was in office.
Appearing at parliament on Tuesday, DPC secretary Jeremi Moule revealed that the staff running costs of Ms Allan’s Premier’s Private Office had also grown to $18.7m for 83 staff — the highest in recent memory.
The leader of the opposition’s private office cost $2.9m for 17 staff, which was included in the figure.
Total costs for ministerial staff have been growing year on year for the past decade.
They were $49.2m in 2019–20 — up $3m from the year before — and jumped to $53.5m in 2022.
The massive increases over the past two years come despite Treasurer Jaclyn Symes promising to cut “some fat” from Victoria’s public service while slashing thousands of jobs and merging departments and agencies.
Earlier this year, the Allan government commissioned former top bureaucrat Helen Silver to review the Victorian public service and identify overlaps, inefficiencies, functions and programs that can be cut.
The review cost taxpayers $2m, but the Allan government has defied a parliamentary order to release its blueprint for thousands of public sector job cuts.
Almost two months after receiving the Silver Review into restructuring the public service to find billions of dollars in savings, the government is keeping the report secret.
The ministerial staff budget is not included in the public service and is believed to not be part of the review.
Shadow minister for anti-corruption James Newbury called for Ms Allan to rein in spending in her own department.
“Daniel Andrews notoriously had more taxpayer-funded staff than the Prime Minister. Although it doesn’t seem possible his record could be topped, Jacinta Allan has blown it out of the water,” he said.
“Ms Allan’s department has more taxpayer-funded staff than any politician in our state’s history. With even more staff than it would take to run a small city, Jacinta is still the worst premier that Victoria has ever had”.
A Victorian Government spokesperson said:“We’re firmly focused on delivering for all Victorians -- delivering the frontline services that matter most, ensuring Victorians feel safe and helping to ease the cost of living.”
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Originally published as The whopping amount Victorian taxpayers are forking out for ministerial staffers
