As the Australian election draws daily nearer, and the likelihood of a change of government grows stronger, the Dutton coalition are promising to reign in Labor’s out-of-control spending. It’s a daunting task: even before the election has been announced, Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers are splashing tens of billions in new spending seemingly by the week.
One place the opposition could start is the public service. Not just slashing back the over-sized and unproductive public service, but reigning in their astonishing entitlement mentality. If you’ve ever been to Canberra, you’ll know that just how much money is washing around the seat of government, which is hardly surprising, given that we’re paying the highest public service wages in the world.
Who do you think gets paid more, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the US or his Australian counterpart, the Chief of the Defence Force?
Before we get to the cash, let’s compare the jobs. The top gun in the US leads strategic planning and joint force operations and is principal military adviser to the president, defence secretary and National Security Council. The US has about 1.3 million active-duty personnel and 811,000 reserves, operates more than 750 bases in more than 80 countries and is backed by a $US1.4 trillion budget.
Australia’s most senior officer oversees military planning and operations and advises the prime minister, defence minister and the national security committee. The force he commands has about 58,000 active personnel and 21,000 reserves, and operates primarily in the Indo-Pacific on a budget of $58bn.
The US has 13,043 aircraft to our 327. It has 440 ships, including 11 aircraft carriers, and 70 submarines. We have 44 ships, zero aircraft carriers and six ageing submarines.
Yet, for all the massively greater responsibilities, the American defence boss earns just one-third as much as Australia’s. The chief of the defence force trousers an astonishing $1,135,524.
The same grotesque largesse rules throughout the Australian public service. The secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet earns nearly four times as much as the White House Chief of Staff and three times as much as Britain’s cabinet secretary. On top of that, these greedy bureaucrats get 12 business class return airfares between Canberra and the capital city closest to their principal place of residence. At least that suggests that they go into the office once a month.
A rung down from the head of PM&C are the secretaries of treasury, defence, health and aged care. They each take home $986,120 a year. The lowest paid of the 16 departmental heads gets a miserly $809,130. That is still more than $200,000 more than the Prime Minister ($607,471).
Search the globe and it turns out Australia has the highest paid senior bureaucrats in the world. The only serious contender for that title is Singapore. Why on earth should this be the case?
After all, it’s not like they’re delivering bang for buck. Analysis by the Australian Financial Review shows that productivity in the government sector is steadily declining.
The audacious entitlement mentality doesn’t stop at monumental wages and free business class flights. These lazy troughers love to live a lifestyle that would be envy of the Sun King.
More than $57,000 was spent on the office fit-out of former Department of Parliamentary Services deputy secretary Cate Saunders, of which $20,000 was spent on a bespoke desk that now sits in storage, and more than $24,000 on a shelving unit.
The revelations of spending on expensive furniture as many Australians struggle with the soaring cost of living came as evidence from Senate estimates revealed DPS secretary Rob Stefanic – who was last year forced to declare a conflict of interest over his relationship with Ms Saunders – was sacked after a “loss of trust and confidence”.
If only Australian voters could sack them for being greedy shits.
A fridge had also been purchased for the wall unit, at a cost of more than $4500.
Well, one has to keep the Veuve Clicquot and caviar at just the right temperature.
All this money, just to burden the Australian taxpayers with dickheads who’d be unemployable in the real world.
The public servant now charged with delivering Australia’s largest housing project in Victoria was deemed by an independent selection panel as not “well suited” for being responsible for “complex policy matters” when he applied for the job of Queensland under-treasurer.
A Crime and Corruption Commission report into Frankie Carroll’s eventual appointment as Queensland’s top Treasury official in 2019 was scathing of the state’s then most senior public servant, Dave Stewart, for changing the panel’s unanimous report to remove an assessment of Mr Carroll as “unappointable” in the role.
It’s an exclusive club – and you’re not in it.
