Shorten’s $310,000-a-year writer behind at least 170 speeches – but no zingers

The speechwriter contracted at $620,000 over two years for Services Australia spends the majority of her time writing speeches for NDIS Minister Bill Shorten, but fellow minister Matt Keogh insists the former Labor leader still writes his own zingers.

Senate estimates revealed on Monday that Julianne Stewart, who wrote speeches for former prime ministers Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, was hired by Services Australia on a two-year contract, set to end in September, valued at $620,000.

National Disability Insurance Scheme Minister Bill Shorten in parliament on Tuesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Services Australia deputy chief executive Susie Smith told an estimates hearing that Stewart was hired due to a “market failure” and the department needed “specialist speech-writing capabilities” – but then returned later that afternoon to clarify Stewart does more than work for Shorten.

“She provides training and building of capability, she’s not exclusive to Minister Shorten,” Smith said.

“[Stewart] does do work for the agency, she belongs to the agency. She has management reporting and arrangements through to the agency, through to the communications division. She participates in the weekly team meetings with the communications division for which I’m responsible for.”

However, a government source speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed Stewart spends the majority of her time writing speeches for Shorten and has written every speech for him since her employment – amounting to at least 170 speeches.

Shorten’s ministerial website lists 23 speeches he has given since Stewart was employed, which shadow treasurer Angus Taylor slammed as proof of government misspending during a cost-of-living crisis.

“It gets worse, because there were already two speechwriters within a team of 201 media and communication staff members. So this is just extraordinary,” Taylor told Canberra radio station 2CC on Tuesday.

A federal MP’s base salary is now $225,742. Officials from Services Australia confirmed speechwriters within the public service are paid a maximum of $140,000 a year and the agency has about 200 people in its communications team.

Other departments under Shorten include the National Disability Insurance Agency which has about 130 staff in its communications team, while the Department of Social Services has 87 – 10 of which are in the media and speech team.

Coalition NDIS spokeswoman Linda Reynolds said it was “astonishing” that Shorten could not find the support from his own ministerial office, the National Disability Insurance Agency, Services Australia or the Department of Social Services, and needed another contractor on top of these resources.

“Instead of wasting taxpayers’ money on additional spin, Minister Shorten must focus on ensuring the NDIS is sustainable for the most vulnerable Australians on the scheme,” she said.

Stewart’s LinkedIn profile states she has also written speech for former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce and that she is “now writing across the spectrum of the portfolio of Bill Shorten”. “I bring out the warmth and compassion as a strength in speakers, so they build a rapport with the audience,” Stewart’s biography says.

She got her start as a storyliner and scriptwriter on 1980s Australian television soap operas Sons and Daughters and A Country Practice but now focuses on keynote speeches about disability, government service jobs and payments, parliamentary speeches and conference addresses.

Bill Shortern’s speechwriter Julianne Stewart.

Federal ministers including Employment Minister Tony Burke, Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Veterans’ Affairs Minister Matt Keogh have rallied behind Shorten, arguing the contract was a matter for the department.

“I’m pretty convinced that Bill writes all his own zingers but this was contracted through Services Australia, not NDIS, and it’s not contracted to Bill. And this is a person that’s providing a range of communication services to Services Australia,” Keogh told Perth’s 6PR radio on Tuesday.

Burke also said at a time of labour shortages, professions in demand get more money than they would otherwise.

“You keep ending up with situations where people, where some various professions, are getting more money than would otherwise be paid when there’s labour shortage,” Burke told ABC Radio National on Tuesday.

“Would that job ordinarily be paid that amount? Absolutely not, for the exact reasons that I’ve explained, that’s why it landed in the place that it did.”

Bowen also backed Shorten, refusing to say if he thought the contract was excessive. “They don’t work for ministers, to be clear, and ministers by and large aren’t involved in those decisions about recruiting them,” Bowen said.

A Services Australia spokesperson said that after the COVID pandemic, the need to support ministerial and senior executive messages had “increased and intensified”.

The department attempted to recruit a speechwriter externally in July 2022 and then after no applicants were found successful, used “a number of labour hire panels” but were still unable to source the appropriate expertise.

“A speechwriter was directly sourced and contracted in September 2022 to adequately support ministerial and senior executive messages, speaking engagements and speeches,” the spokesperson said.

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