Suburban Rail Loop diversity manager job to pay close to $250,000 a year

Victorians are set to fork out close to a quarter of a million dollars a year to employ a diversity and inclusion manager on the Suburban Rail Loop.

The Andrews government advertised the new job with an annual salary of $175,731 to $238,997.

Victorian taxpayers are set to be slugged close to a quarter of a million dollars a year for a diversity and inclusion manager on the controversial Suburban Rail Loop project.

The Andrews government advertised the full time “Manager Inclusion and Diversity” role across multiple employment websites on Thursday.

The position has an annual salary of $175,731 to $238,997 with 49 applicants applying as of Friday afternoon.

The massive salary comes as Victoria nurses the biggest debt of any state in the nation, draws up plans to axe thousands of public servants and gets ready to hand down a horror budget later this month.

The new job position was advertised on Seek and LinkedIn.

All government departments have been told to cut 10 per cent of ongoing staff, meaning more than 5000 workers are in the gun to lose their jobs.

The anticipated cuts would be the biggest in more than a decade – when former premier Ted Baillieu pushed to slash 3600 jobs.

The successful Suburban Rail Loop applicant will be responsible for “leading the development of inclusion and diversity frameworks and programs” that ensures the SRL project is “an inclusive workplace where everyone feels safe to be their true self at work”.

The applicant will have “outstanding” communications skills, the ability to demonstrate senior leadership experience and the ability to coach and partner with senior leaders.

3AW’s Neil Mitchell slammed the new job position.

“They’ll get, inevitably an environmentally-friendly Tesla, and they’ll get the stupid superannuation we pay public servants, an ergonomically sound office, and somebody will serve them organic coffee,” he said.”

The SRL is a 90km circular line that would create 15 new stations and medium or high density precincts between Cheltenham and Werribee.

The government wants to open the first section — a 26km line from Cheltenham to Box Hill with six underground stations — by 2035.

It says that the project is needed to cope with a projected population of nine million people by mid-century — the current size of London.