Pay packets of Queensland’s top execs reflect demanding roles | full list
The extraordinary pay packets of Queensland’s highest ranked public servants have been revealed. Who gets paid the most? SEE THE FULL LIST
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The extraordinary pay packets of the state’s highest public servants have been revealed — with some of the state’s top jobs bringing with them some eye-opening figures.
Included in the list is the head of Queensland Heath Shaun Drummond who will finish up on Sunday in the role he took on initially as acting director-general in March 2022, which earned him about $63,428 a month.
He announced his resignation from the top role in June after a Queensland Health proposal to penalise staff who disclosed inappropriate information to journalists.
CHECK OUT QLD’S 50 HIGHEST PAID PUBLIC SERVANTS: FULL LIST
Before taking on the director-general role in October 2022, Mr Drummond was Queensland Health’s acting chief operating officer for two months until March 2022, for which he got paid about $135,000.
Mr Drummond’s pay packet, along with more than 220 other top state bureaucrats, was published in one of 23 annual reports the state makes public each year.
Another to pull the pin despite the lucrative pay packet was Transport and Main Roads director-general Neil Scales, who announced his retirement from his $633,000-a-year salary in June.
Mr Scales had served in the department for more than a decade and as chief executive starting on about $275,000 a year before he took on the top job in September 2022.
Since his departure, the Acting Director-General of Transport and Main Roads, a position held by Sally Stannard, is now worth more than $633,000 a year.
Another to pull the pin over the past 12 months, despite the pay packet, is senior bureaucrat John Lee, who earned $601,000 while he was director-general of the state’s Tourism Department until he resigned in September 2022.
The role is now held by Andrew Hopper, who earned $134,000 in the six months he was deputy Director-General, Tourism Recovery, Games Engagement and Legacy from December 2021 to June 2022.
CS Energy chief executive officer Andrew Bills stepped down from his $832,000 role in February to take up a post in South Australia.
His salary for the energy provider was higher than any package recorded in an annual report for state government bureaucrats.
However, it was on a par with some of the highest-paid federal public servants, senior executives and department secretaries to Queensland federal ministers and senators.
The federal government’s Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy earned $916,120, well above the highest-paid Queensland public servant, Premier and Cabinet Department Director-General Rachel Hunter, who was paid $771,000 for the year to June 30, 2022.
The second highest-paid federal public servant with ties to Queensland politicians, based on the data for the 2021-22 period, was the federal government’s Department of Home Affairs Secretary Michael Pezzulo on $892,630.
The federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Secretary Andrew Metcalf earned $845,650 in 2021-22 while the Department of Health and Aged Care Secretary Blair Comley was on $845,650.
Queensland’s Acting Under Treasurer Maryanne Kelly, who was appointed in February, can expect to earn $685,000, up substantially from her role as Deputy Director-General in the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training, where annual report data shows the post was worth $310,000.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll earned her pay rise over the year from July 2021 to June 2022 in which she had to deal with Covid border closures and more than 300 police disciplinary cases.
Since her $615,000 pay packet was revealed in the 2022 Police annual report, she has also had to deal with a major shootout in which two of her officers were tragically killed.
Her salary was slightly higher than that of the Chief Executive of the Public Service Commission David Mackie, who was paid $612,000 for his service from July 2021 to June 2022.
All top 50 senior bureaucrat positions in the state government earned more than $300,000 in the year to June 2022.
However, the average executive director salary in Queensland across 220 positions for the 2021-2022 year was estimated to be $247,562, based on results published across the 23 annual reports with bonuses bumping up an average package to about $252,000 a year.
Under the Queensland’s Chief Executive Remuneration Framework, deals for agency chief executives and some statutory authority chief executives, were increased on September 1, 2022.
The new top band of executive pay in Queensland was lifted to $682,125 to $852,628 with second-tier executives on packages of between $610,960 and $763,699.
Third-tier executives, which includes some deputy directors, are paid between $473,154 and $709,732 with the lowest band between $210,215 and $284,436.
Packages include employer superannuation contributions of 12.75 per cent along with an executive vehicle allowance of $30,000 and annual leave loading of 17.5 per cent.
During the 2021-22 year, some positions had short-term employees, while others were filled by different individuals at the time the annual report was compiled.
The state packages were substantially less than those earned by top federal bureaucrats attached to departments with Queensland politicians, with their pay packets ranging from $845,650 to $916,120.
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