I should have been a public servant -
nice pay if you can get it -
https://www.afr.com/politics/these-32-public-servants-earn-more-than-1-million-2...Highest-paid public sector employees
Agency Name Role Total*
1 NBN Stephen Rue CEO $3,037,016
2 Australia Post Paul Graham CEO $2,385,610
3 Western Sydney Airport Simon Hickey CEO $1,610,978
4 Future Fund Raphael Arndt CEO $1,563,561
5 NBN Kathrine Dyer COO $1,519,571
6 Snowy Hydro Roger Whitby COO $1,475,610
7 Future Fund Ben Samild Deputy CIO $1,373,300
8 Snowy Hydro Iain Graham CEO, Red Energy $1,339,285
9 Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation Alison Tarditi CIO $1,325,553
10 Snowy Hydro Gordon Wymer Chief commercial officer $1,318,978
11 Australia Post Rod Barnes EGM network operations $1,283,008
12 Future Fund Alicia Gregory Deputy CIO $1,279,967
13 NBN Will Irving Chief strategy and transformation officer $1,275,094
14 Future Fund Not disclosed Not disclosed $1,248,036
15 Snowy Hydro Paul Broad Former CEO $1,220,412
16 NBN Philip Knox CFO $1,218,992
17 Australia Post Rodney Boys CFO $1,198,563
18 Australia Post Gary Starr EGM parcel, post and eCommerce $1,196,625
19 Future Fund Not disclosed Not disclosed $1,194,397
20 Australia Post Catriona Noble EGM Retail, brand and marketing $1,189,097
21 ABC David Anderson CEO and managing editor $1,156,969
22 Reserve Bank of Australia Philip Lowe Governor $1,147,465
23 Australia Post Susan Davies EGM people and culture $1,143,204
24 Australia Post Not disclosed Not disclosed $1,109,190
25 Federal Circuit and Family Court William Alstergren Chief justice $1,097,339
26 Future Fund Not disclosed Not disclosed $1,071,472
27 Defence General Angus Campbell Chief of the defence force $1,062,702
28 NBN John Parkin Chief engineering officer $1,052,988
29 Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation Damian Hill CEO $1,038,474
30 Snowy Hydro Gabrielle Curtin Group executive $1,035,649
31 Future Fund Cameron Price General counsel and chief risk officer $1,011,614
32 Defence Greg Moriarty Secetary $1,006,474
Australia’s top bureaucrats are the best paid in the world.
By Chris Uhlmann in The Australian.
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? …
In our dollars the American defence boss gets $382,000 a year and, according to Defence’s latest annual report, Australia’s chief got $1,135,524 in 2023-24. … Try to mount a coherent argument as to why Australia should boast the highest paid military man in the world, one who gets to within a rounding error of earning three times the pay of his US counterpart. …
Australia’s top mandarin, the secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet, was paid $1,086,846 in 2024. … The White House chief of staff is [paid] $294,813. … Britain’s highest ranking civil servant is the cabinet secretary, [which] comes with a pay packet of $400,274.85.
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? …
Former public service commissioner Andrew Podger believes the pay of top bureaucrats is too high and based on “spurious market comparisons” with the private sector. …
So here is an election year thought for both parties: pledge to halve the wages of departmental heads and freeze them until they conjure ideas that lift the suffocating regulatory burden of government. …
Any secretary who violently disagreed with the idea could resign and test the idea that they will make more in the private sector.