“Absurd” staffing levels in Regional NSW Secretary’s office sparks review
Millions of dollars in taxpayer money supposed to help regional communities has been sucked out of the budget to pay for back office bureaucrats.
Millions of dollars in taxpayer money supposed to help regional communities has been sucked out of the budget to pay for back office bureaucrats.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the Minns government is set to slash staff in the Office of the Secretary of Regional NSW which is now three times larger than the Premier’s office.
The blowout in back office staff, overseen by the previous government, has led to the Office of the Secretary of Regional NSW now employing almost 90 full-time-equivalent staff.
The office spent $17 million in 2022-23, $4 million more than the year before, a wide-ranging review of government spending has revealed.
When former Deputy Premier John Barilaro first established the Department of Regional NSW (DRNSW) in 2020, the Office of the Secretary employed 64 FTE staff, and spent $10.69 million in a year.
The DRNSW Secretary’s office is more than double the size of comparative offices in Communities and Justice, Treasury, and Customer Service combined.
It means millions of dollars is being spent on back office staff in the Secretary of Regional NSW’s office, when the money could actually be used to help regional communities.
Almost a quarter of the staff employed in the DRNSW Secretary’s office are in “corporate communications”.
There are almost 15 media staff, and almost 27 staff doing “stakeholder engagement”.
Just over 21 staff are employed in “cabinet and ministerial” roles, while the secretary has four direct reports.
Regional NSW Minister Tara Moriarty is now set to put a broom through the office in a bid to save cash.
She labelled the numbers of staff in the Secretary’s office “absurd”.
After coming to government, she “immediately instructed the department to review the size of the office,” she said.
“People in regional communities deserve every cent they can get out of this government, the money should not be going to back-office corporate communications staff,” she said.
The department was contacted for comment.
Nationals Leader Dugald Saunders backed the department set up under Mr Barilaro in 2020, saying it was “completely distinctive” to departments in the city.
“We decentralised the department of regional to actually have people living and working in regional NSW as opposed to a centralised model where people in metropolitan areas like Sydney are pretending to know what people in the bush need,” Mr Saunders said.
Last week, the Telegraph revealed similar cost blowouts in the Office of the Cross Border Commissioner.
The Cross Border Commissioner, also a part of DRNSW, spent almost $4.5 million in 2022-23, with the office tripling in size over three years.
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Originally published as “Absurd” staffing levels in Regional NSW Secretary’s office sparks review
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