Resilience NSW spends triple predecessor’s budget on executive salaries
The under-fire disaster management agency’s “fat cats” are costing NSW taxpayers an extraordinary amount more than their predecessors, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
NSW
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The under-fire Resilience NSW spent almost three times as much on 24 fewer staff than the agency it replaced, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
With 15 “fat cats” at executive level, the 105 staff at Resilience NSW cost the state $19.2 million in the 2020-21 financial year while the 129 employees of the previous Office of Emergency Management cost just $7.4 million in the year before the agency was taken over in May 2020.
The total expenses for the same year for Resilience NSW, led by former Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, were $576 million, three times as much as the relatively modest $182 million of the Office of Emergency Management.
Shadow emergency services minister Jihad Dib said the figures again raised the question of whether Resilience NSW, created by former premier Gladys Berejiklian, was worth it. “From the data, it seems Resilience NSW is paying a lot more money for a lot less staff,” Mr Dib said.
“When you look at the current staffing situation, Resilience NSW lacks balance by being disproportionately large at the executive level.”
The figures were obtained by the state Labor opposition. Little mention of budget details of the Office of Emergency Management remains online but parliamentary reports show part of its job was to administer the government’s Disaster Relief Account.
Resilience NSW also administers grants but The Daily Telegraph revealed last month that almost $400 million in funding for recovery and preparation was not spent by the agency as red tape stopped it getting to Northern Rivers residents devastated by the floods.
When the new agency was announced, the government said it would have broad functions and powers to co-ordinate government action in emergencies including fire, flood, storm, earthquake, explosion, terrorist act, accident, epidemic or warlike action.
Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke was contacted for comment.
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