Another ‘exorbitant salary’ set to be added to Suburban Rail Loop payroll

As questions linger over the mega project’s feasibility, it is offering applicants for its director of engineering role a salary range that exceeds the industry standard by more than $100,000.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and Suburban Rail Loop Minister Harriet Shing, right. Picture: NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

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The Victorian government’s controversial Suburban Rail Loop project is looking to add another high-paid executive to its ranks, offering applicants for its director of engineering role a six-figure salary range that exceeds the industry standard by more than $100,000.

The new role would be the latest in a slew of high-paid executives to be hired by the project despite multibillion-dollar funding black holes and warnings from the nation’s major projects watchdog about uncertainty surrounding its cost estimate and benefits.

The successful candidate for the director position will collect a salary between $290,000 and$419,000, well above the industry standard rate for similar positions.

According to job site Jora, the average salary for a director of engineering in Australia is $210,000-$230,000, while employment data analyst site Glassdoor found the average salary of those in similar roles to be $178,000-$236,000.

The posting comes just over two months after a hiring drive saw the SRL take on seven new roles all with the same maximum salary of $419,000, costing the project a total of $1.3m a year.

Analysis by The Australian ­this month revealed that taxpayers were forking out an estimated $7.4m a year for SRL communications alone, with a team of almost 50 staff maintained for the project’s communications and engagement needs.

Speaking to The Australian on Monday, opposition major projects spokesman Evan Mulholland said the move proved “Labor’s priorities are completely skewed”.

“While Premier (Jacinta) Allan talks about cutting back across the public service through her Silver Review, the SRLA is on an absolute spending spree, throwing exorbitant salaries at new executives for an unaffordable project,” Mr Mulholland said.

“This is a slap in the face to Victorians struggling with the cost of living, road congestion and out of control crime.”

The job posting says the successful candidate will be “responsible for leading SRLA’s technical governance, design assurance and engineering integrity across all project packages”.

It’s understood this includes responsibility for the technical integrity of all works packages across the entire SRL East project.

A spokeswoman for the SRL defended the salary range, adding the role “requires highly specialised expertise, technical skill and experience”.

“We are competing with Australia-wide and global major projects, and it is essential that we can recruit the necessary specialist and technical expertise for a project of this magnitude and complexity,” she added.

Despite significant controversy around the project’s execution and the legitimacy of its business case, recent Newspoll data from June found a 59 per cent majority of Victorians backed the project. The first stage is set to connect Cheltenham and Box Hill by 2035, at a cost of $34.5bn.

The Allan government has so far committed to fronting up $11.5bn of the costs, which it expects the federal government to match.

However, the government says it will rely on a controversial and ill-defined model of “value capture”, whereby a portion of the project’s economic benefits is used to pay for it.

But that strategy came under scrutiny in May, with a report from commonwealth agency Infrastructure Australia questioning the legitimacy of both the business case and the viability of value capture in a report that also recommended the state develop exit plans.