Public service salaries reveal how out of touch the sector is
The blowouts in transport executive payments and the automatic pay rises for politicians and public servants show we’re not all in this together.
Patrick Carlyon
Don't miss out on the headlines from Patrick Carlyon. Followed categories will be added to My News.
We’ve all heard stories about the builder who takes his money but doesn’t finish the job. Or the plumber who sends the bill even though the toilet is still leaking.
Not everyone has suffered through the pandemic. Some Victorians have done it tougher than others. Some haven’t done it tough at all.
Victorian taxpayers are justified in wondering if some public sector salaries compare to the bodgy builder or profiteering plumber.
Out of touch best describes the surging cost of major transport project executives since the pandemic began, when many Victorians were stranded at home, counting pennies, and waiting for lockdowns to end.
The fact that 112 major transport project executives are earning more than $300,000 a year – more than three times the average wage – understandably galls small business people, who have struggled for reasons beyond their control.
It raises the ire of the rest of us, too.
Public servants have collectively fared well through the crisis.
Since Dan Andrews came to power in 2014, their pay has risen by almost a third more than the private sector.
The total bill is expected to be more than $30bn this financial year, compared to $18.4bn six years ago.
The blowouts in transport executive payments for major projects is a case in point.
It seems the rest of us picked the wrong vocation.
Almost 370 executives earn from $160,000 to more than $500,000.
At least 18 transport project executives appear to earn more than the premier himself, who earns more than $450,000, the most of any state premier.
Whatever you think of Andrews’ performance, and let’s not even get into perceived failures and misjudgements, leading the state through a crisis is a big gig.
That so many faceless others, paid by us, manage projects for more money than the premier doesn’t seem right.
No one expects experts and specialists to receive peanuts. Yet here they do receive an awful lot of money – our money – for some major initiatives beset with problems.
The West Gate Tunnel is two years behind schedule, and set to cost $3.3bn more than was estimated. On rough estimates, that extra cost equates to almost $500 extra for every Victorian.
And yet those managing these projects cost us more and more?
Small Business Australia executive director Bill Lang has labelled it a “big blow-taucracy”.
All Victorians, not just small business people, will shake their heads in disbelief.
Who awards this remuneration? Who assesses performance and how is it measured?
Victoria is lugged with automatic rises for politicians and public servants.
No matter the crisis, and apparently regardless of merit, they receive more money every year.
Auditor-General Andrew Greaves has referred to “underlying issues with the growth in employee and other costs” which pre-date the pandemic.
Many Victorians may use different language. Like all victims of incomplete and unsatisfactory service, we wonder if we are being robbed blind.
Prepare for a summer of discontent
The timing of the next federal election is likely to condemn us to an excruciatingly long unofficial campaign, sapping all the fun to Christmas and beyond, writes Patrick Carlyon.
Albo’s stunning census backflip has politicians ‘spooked’
Albo’s latest move on whether or not to exclude a key question in the 2026 census is an example of the Prime Minister making enemies and losing friends, writes Patrick Carlyon.