Public servants pocket millions in bonuses despite COVID-19 pay freeze

Public servants have pocketed millions of dollars in bonuses, despite a pay freeze during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Public servants cashed in millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded bonuses last year even as the federal government moved to freeze their wages because of the COVID-19 recession.

The Herald Sun can reveal government lawyers shared in $7.1m in bonuses — some worth up to $70,000 — over the last 18 months.

Several agricultural agencies also handed out hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the Australian Financial Security Authority — which manages bankruptcy laws — paid an extra $9000 to its employees.

Labor’s government accountability spokeswoman Kimberley Kitching said the “extravagance is an insult to each and every Australian family that has had to tighten its belt to cope with the pandemic”.

“Santa Claus’s identity is a closely guarded secret but some might think the Prime Minister lets him moonlight during the year in the Commonwealth bureaucracy buying Cartier watches and awarding bonuses,” she said.

Labor senator Kimberley Kitching.

It follows revelations that dozens of executives at government entities were paid six-figure bonuses last year, including bosses of NBN Co, Snowy Hydro and the Future Fund.

The Morrison government launched a review of performance incentives for senior bureaucrats, as Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Ben Morton called on agencies to “exercise restraint to the furthest extent possible in keeping with community expectations”.

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the government deferred wage increases for public servants.

But new data shows lawyers working for the Australian Government Solicitor received $3.2m in bonuses in 2019/20, and another $3.9m between July 1 and December 10 last year.

In the last financial year, those incentives were shared among 277 staff, with many receiving five-figure bonuses. Attorney-General Christian Porter said this was “standard practice under successive governments”.

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority handed out $999,079 to 152 staff in 2019/20, and another $64,954 in the second half of last year.

Its staff received generous incentives after former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce pushed to relocate the agency from Canberra to his regional NSW electorate.

Grains Research and Development Corporation paid an extra $641,965 to 88 employees in the last financial year — averaging $7295 each — and then $549,950 to 91 staff between July 1 and December 10.

More than $300,000 in bonuses were also paid over the last 18 months to staff working in a series of agencies and government-owned entities involved in Indigenous issues.

In November, the government scrapped the 2 per cent annual wage rise cap for public servants, instead linking pay increases to the private sector, where wage growth is expected to be sluggish as the nation recovers from the recession.

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