Public service mandarins handed pay bumps to lead Anthony Albanese’s bloated bureaucracy
FULL LIST | Australia’s top 17 public service mandarins will be paid combined packages of up to $16.3m, as Anthony Albanese directs them to improve efficiencies across Labor’s ballooning bureaucracy.
Australia’s 17 highest-ranking public service mandarins will be paid combined remuneration packages valued at up to $16.3m in addition to travel expenses and other perks, as Anthony Albanese directs them to get more out of Labor’s ballooning bureaucracy.
The Prime Minister’s 16 heads of departments on Tuesday won pay bumps following a Remuneration Tribunal determination last month, which delivered increases for all department secretaries and elevated new Treasury boss Jenny Wilkinson into the $1m club alongside Mr Albanese’s top bureaucrat Steven Kennedy.
Australian Public Service Commissioner Gordon de Brouwer, who works closely with Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher overseeing a federal bureaucracy expected to exceed 213,000 in 2025-26, will receive a $932,120 remuneration package.
In addition to the APS chiefs, APRA chair John Lonsdale on Tuesday became the first banking regulator to nudge over $1m, Chief of the Defence Force David Johnston is now on $983,910 and Commissioner of Taxation Rob Heferen will receive $928,980.
ACCC boss Gina Cass-Gottlieb and ASIC chair Joe Longo will take home $878,760, while Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood’s remuneration package rises to $690,470.
The promotions of Dr Kennedy to lead the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet and Ms Wilkinson to run Treasury align with the second-term Albanese government’s push to apply a stronger focus on driving public service efficiencies across the board.
The Australian understands ministers have been instructed to draw more actively on the advice of public service employees and limit additional staff or unnecessary travel, as Labor strives to stabilise public spending growth.
There were 193,503 “ongoing and non-ongoing” APS employees at the end of 2024 but as the government continues cutting consultants and labour hire firms, the March 25 budget forecast the number of public servants in 2025-26 would be about 213,000.
Dr Kennedy – who became the government’s most senior bureaucrat on June 16 – is the highest-paid department secretary in Canberra on a package worth $1,035,690. With more than 30 years’ experience in the public service, Dr Kennedy was the post-election frontrunner to replace Glyn Davis as secretary of Mr Albanese’s department.
APS insiders said Dr Kennedy, who ran Treasury under the Morrison and Albanese governments from 2019 to 2025, would run a sharper economic eye across all government departments and agencies.
Dr Kennedy is tasked with leading economic reforms alongside Ms Wilkinson and ensuring public service growth does not clash with the government’s aim for the private sector to be the primary driver of an economy stifled by weak productivity and growth.
After devising the Morrison government’s Covid economic packages and helping Dr Chalmers deliver two surpluses from Labor’s four budgets, Dr Kennedy has brought advisers including chief of staff Karla Rayner to PM&C and streamlined the department’s economic, industry and resilience group.
Ms Wilkinson, who was tapped to run the Finance Department after the 2022 election and is close to Senator Gallagher, is the first Treasury secretary to receive a package above $1m. She replaces Dr Kennedy as an ex-officio member of the Reserve Bank monetary policy board.
In a podcast with The Conversation last month, Dr Chalmers described Dr Kennedy as “a very influential person” in the government. “It’s the best of all worlds from our point of view to have Kennedy at PM&C and Wilkinson at Treasury,” Dr Chalmers said. “That’s an amazing outcome for anyone who cares about economic reform and responsible economic management. They are very informed, very considered, big thinkers when it comes to economic reform, and we’re going to tap their experience, their interest and their intellect.”
Since Dr Kennedy’s arrival at PM&C two weeks ago, he has convened a meeting of the secretaries board, established an audit and risk committee and released ministerial international travel guidelines. They set out strict criteria that ministers must adhere to, including keeping trips to a minimum length, limiting their duration of absence from Australia and striving to avoid clashing with parliamentary sitting periods, significant events, Cabinet and sub-Cabinet meetings.
In addition to the use of Special Purpose Aircraft, all international travel must be signed off by the Prime Minister’s Office, have outcomes aligning with government priorities and be combined to reduce overall international stops.
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