Senior bureaucrats heading up ­Victoria’s major projects earning eye-watering amounts

Daniel Andrews has said the huge salaries earned by senior bureaucrats on late and over-budget government projects are justified.

Senior bureaucrats heading up ­Victoria’s major projects are earning eye-watering amounts. Render: supplied

Big pay packets for senior bureaucrats on major projects are here to stay with Daniel Andrews saying they are justified.

On Thursday, Mr Andrews said he was fine with the fact some CEOs were earning more than he was.

“These projects are critically important and these are projects that Victorians voted for,” he said.

“None of them are easy.

“In fact, many of them are very very difficult. That’s perhaps why no one else built them decades ago when they probably should have, when they would have been cheaper and easier,” he said.

“If you don’t have the very best people running these projects then I don’t think you get outcomes that Victorians want.”

When asked whether he was happy some earned more than himself, Mr Andrews said “yes I am”.

“There are many hundreds, thousands of people working on these projects and they would be able to earn substantially more in the private sector and that’s just a fact.”

The eye-watering new pay deals for senior bureaucrats on ­Victorian major projects — including one running a year late — were approved despite the coronavirus pandemic pummelling the state budget.

As many businesses across the state struggle to stay afloat, the Andrews government sought special permission for a suite of infrastructure bosses to pocket annual packages above public sector salary caps.

The move allows for the new head of the government’s multi-billion dollar Suburban Rail Loop project, Frankie ­Carroll, to be paid $680,000-$700,000 a year — at least $200,000 more than public sector pay bands allow.

Frankie Carroll will earn at least $200,000 more than public sector pay bands allow. Picture: supplied

The tribunal rejected some proposals for massive salaries late last year, but still green-lit packages worth between seven and 46 per cent more than pay band caps.

Among them was $450,000 for the chief operating officer and $430,000 for a new “general manager strategy” on the West Gate Tunnel, which is at least a year late and set to run billions over budget.

Two directors of early works on the Melbourne ­Airport Rail project will earn $385,000.

The state opposition has savaged the taxpayer-funded largesse at a time when many Victorian infrastructure projects are behind time or over budget, and while thousands of people are struggling to keep jobs or businesses afloat due to COVID-19.

But the government’s Major Transport Infrastructure Authority defended the spend, saying Victoria “is competing against a strong private infrastructure sector for the best resources”.

Premier Daniel Andrews personally sought advice from the Remuneration Tribunal about how much the state could pay Mr Carroll, who was poached from running Queensland’s treasury department.

Construction of the West Gate Tunnel in Melbourne. Picture: Alex Coppel

The tribunal’s advice to the Premier says a package of $680,000-$700,000 was appropriate due to Mr Carroll’s current salary, “labour market pressures” and the scope of the project.

“The tribunal will continue to monitor Victoria’s fiscal and economic conditions and the impact the pandemic has had on executive remuneration levels across all sectors,” the advice says.

Stage one of the new loop is a tunnel between Cheltenham in Melbourne’s southeast and Box Hill in the eastern suburbs, which will connect to existing rail lines and link major education and jobs precincts. It is unfunded and still in the planing stage but is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars.

Opposition transport infrastructure spokesman David Davis said the government had lost control in dishing out exorbitant salaries to “fat cats theoretically in charge of Labor’s botched major projects”.

“Under Daniel Andrews, these executives get their fat overpayments no matter what their performance,” he said.

“When projects are more than $2.7 billion over budget like the Metro Tunnel, nobody appears accountable.

“When a project like the West Gate Tunnel is years behind time and has no solution for toxic tunnel spoil, who is responsible?”

Victorian Transport and Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan at the Arden Station construction site for the Suburban Rail Loop. Picture: Penny Stephens

The MTIA, which oversees the government’s infrastructure agenda across Victoria, had several submissions for bigger pay packets rejected by the remuneration tribunal. This included for the legal director of Major Road Projects Victoria, two directors of early works for the airport rail project, and the chief engineer of Rail Projects Victoria.

An MTIA spokesperson said the state’s Big Build was “delivering the biggest transport infrastructure program in Victoria’s history”.

“We need people with world-class, specialist technical skills and experience to deliver the major road and rail projects our state needs.”

Meanwhile, the tribunal also endorsed paying the director of the Mildura Base Hospital transition, Ingrid Player, her current salary for an extra 2½ months. This means a pro rata rate based on an annual $535,695 package – which is almost 50 per cent higher than the $360,000 maximum for similar executives.