$100m in taxpayer-funded bonuses lavished on public servants as others lose jobs

Despite many Australians suffering economic hardship during the pandemic, public servants still pocketed millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded incentives.

Public servants have been paid almost $100m in bonuses even as the federal government urged restraint and moved to freeze their pay during the pandemic.

The Herald Sun has uncovered 11 agencies and ­departments that paid millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded incentives to staff over the 18 months to the end of 2020.

The revelations will reignite a political storm sparked by the huge bonuses handed out by Australia Post and NBN Co — both government-owned businesses — despite the COVID-19 recession.

Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, who has pursued the bonus bills of government agencies for months, said: ­“Excess like this is salt in the gaping wounds of those who’ve lost jobs, lost hours and lost businesses because of the pandemic.”

And the government agreed, with Assistant Minister to the Public Service Minister Ben Morton saying it was not appropriate for public servants to “receive discretionary bonuses while many Australians are facing financial difficulty”.

The most extravagant agencies included the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which paid ­bonuses totalling $15.3m over the 18 months, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which paid $14.3m.

The Morrison government urged agencies to “exercise restraint to the furthest ­extent possible in keeping with community expectations”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicole Cleary

That included average incentives of $10,248 for 319 staff in the last six months of 2020.

The Morrison government last year began a review of incentives for senior bureaucrats as it urged agencies to “exercise restraint to the furthest ­extent possible in keeping with community expectations”.

But last month it was ­revealed NBN Co splurged $77m on bonuses for its staff between July and December.

Australia Post also rewarded its staff with $92m in incentives in 2019-20, even after its executives agreed to forgo their six-figure benefits.

The Herald Sun can now ­reveal that in the last financial year, the Australian Signals Directorate gave $6.8m in ­bonuses to its cyber warfare specialists, and another $6m in the last six months of last year.

Defence Housing Authority staff shared $8.2m and the ­Defence Force paid $208m in bonuses, but they were mainly from retention schemes ­including superannuation benefits for long-serving members. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, which oversees the banking, insurance and superannuation sectors, paid $8.5m in bonuses in 2019-20, with another $3.5m in the last six months of 2020.

Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching said the bonuses were a “salt in the gaping wounds of those who’ve lost jobs”.

Other agencies that paid bonuses included $6.1m at Hearing Australia, $4.4m at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, $6m at CSIRO and $5.9m at the Reserve Bank.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation paid incentives totalling $4.2m in the last ­financial year, although it deferred $1.6m due to executives.

Mr Morton said it was up to agencies to justify the payments, and that it was “not appropriate that senior public servants profit from COVID-19 challenges”.

Senator Kitching said OECD data showed our senior public servants were “the highest paid in the world”.

“When it comes to government leaders and public servants lining their pockets, under the Liberals, Australia is putting in an Olympic gold medal performance,” she said.

The Herald Sun revealed in January that government lawyers had shared in $7.1m in ­bonuses — some up to $70,000 — in the past 18 months.