Salaries for our best-paid Federal public servants are set without reference to private sector salaries, comparable positions in State bureaucracies, or what other countries pay. What’s the scam?
The Scam is the Government Remuneration Tribunal, whose members determine senior bureaucrats’ salaries in an apparent vacuum.
Just over 0.5% of Australian income earners are paid more than one million dollars per year, and that includes several Federal Departmental Secretaries, with the rest of them not far off seven figures.
In a “there for public service, not for profit” Senate Inquiry into secretaries’ salaries, Senator Lambie asked the Remuneration Tribunal whether private sector positions were used as comparable positions.
‘No’ was the answer.
She also asked whether other Australian public sector positions were used as comparable positions. The answer was again, nup. If they had bothered to check, they would see that state public service leaders get much less.
Lambie then asked whether overseas public sector positions were used as comparable positions. Again, “No” was the answer. If they had bothered to check, they would see that overseas public service leaders get much, much less.
Turns out the Remuneration Tribunal write million-dollar cheques, paid for by the public, without doing proper due diligence. Nor, for that matter, worrying about performance:
Source: Senate
The Remuneration Tribunal members need to be fired, new members who are in touch with community expectations need to be hired, and a fresh look needs to be taken at these bloated public service salaries.
Fat Cat bureaucrats. Rem Tribunal out of touch, out of sight
Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and, earlier, a submariner in the armed forces. Best known as an anti-corruption and transparency crusader, Rex is also known as the "Transparency Warrior."