Public service executives have almost tripled under Daniel Andrews

Victoria’s high-paid public service executives have exploded in number under Daniel Andrews with the top bureaucrats earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

The number of executives in Victoria’s public service has almost tripled under the Andrews government in a top-heavy explosion that has far outstripped growth in the workforce they manage.

The blowout in high-paid bureaucrats, who can earn more than $500,000 a year, has included their ranks surging by 271 in the past financial year alone.

The number of public service executives has swelled from 647 in June 2014 to 1742 in June 2021, the latest numbers from the Victorian Public Sector Commission show.

The 170 per cent jump stands in stark contrast to a 60 per cent increase in the wider public service workforce, which weighed in at 58,444 in June.

The number of executives in Victoria’s public service has close to tripled under the Andrews government.

High-paying executives – the median pay packet stands at $240,789 a year while none earn less than $150,000 – now make up 3 per cent of the public service workforce, again up dramatically from 1.8 per cent in June 2014.

The number earning more than $500,000 – the prime minister earns $550,000 – has jumped from three to 25, or from 0.4 per cent of all executives to 1.4 per cent.

At the same time, the number earning $150,000 to $200,000 has fallen from about half of all executives to just 16 per cent.

The numbers relate to the public service, which is made up of government departments and administrative offices.

They do not include wider public sector entities, such as hospitals, schools and water authorities.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews came to power in December 2014.

The Labor leader has both massively increased the size of the public sector and created one which is far more heavily populated by executives earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

The Centre for Independent Studies senior fellow Robert Carling said Victoria’s public sector had expanded at a rate far in excess of other states.

“Victoria stands out like a sore thumb,” Mr Carling, a former NSW treasury bureaucrat, said.

“It’s one of the reasons the Victorian budget was weakening before Covid hit and now the pandemic has just blown it out of the water. Victoria is coming out of Covid with the weakest financial position of all the states.”

Mr Carling said attempts to limit public sector pay – Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas introduced a two per cent public sector pay rise cap in 2019 – could result in bureaucracies upgrading positions as a means of fatten wages, a process known as grade creep.

“When pay is restrained, one way bureaucracies get around it is to upgrade positions so they become higher paid,” he said.

A government spokesperson said the number of executives had risen on the back of the state’s massive infrastructure build and response to Covid, although the sustained growth in high paying bureaucrats pre dates Covid.

“The response to the coronavirus pandemic and the state’s biggest ever infrastructure agenda means we need the right people in place to protect the health of Victorians and work towards a strong economic recovery,” the government said in a statement.

“We’re delivering the best and most effective government services for all Victorians.”