Top paid bureaucrats should have salaries cut by half, says Senator Jacqui Lambie
Australians struggle while public servants pocket seven-figure salaries. Now a reckoning could be coming for the country’s top earners.


News.com.au
April 16, 2026

Frustrated independents are calling for the salaries of Australia’s highest-earning bureaucrats to be cut by at least half due to the cost-of-living crisis impacting millions of families.

The Remuneration Tribunal announced it will conduct a review, the first in 15 years, on the salaries of top-paid officials to ensure they meet public expectations.

Those earning up to $1 million will be put under the microscope by the tribunal, saying there is “strong public interest” in their eye-watering wages.


One of the highest paid is Dr Steven Kennedy, who earns a base salary of $1,035,690 as the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

It provides support to the likes of Anthony Albanese, the Cabinet, portfolio ministers and assistant ministers, and advice on policy and international and national security matters.

Jenny Wilkinson, the Secretary of the Treasury, makes about $1,009,790 a year.

Described by Treasurer Jim Chalmers as one of the “most distinguished and experienced economists, Ms Wilkinson acts as the primary economic adviser to the government, with the department implementing policies and programs to achieve a stronger economy.

While the secretaries of Defence, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Home Affairs also pocket nearly seven-figures annually at roughly $984,000.

All these bureaucrats earn significantly more than the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, Angus Taylor, who take home about $622,050 and $432,250, respectively.   :(


PM Anthony Albanese earns about $622,000.

Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has been trying to cap the pay of top-paid bureaucrats.

Last year, she introduced the Remuneration Tribunal Amendment (There for the Public Service, Not Profit) Bill 2025 in an attempt to restrict the salaries of secretaries and public officers to $430,000 a year – in line with what Mr Chalmers roughly earns.

“I don’t see why they need to be paid over $500,000. I attempted to insert some constraint by requiring any salaries above the Treasurer’s to be endorsed by parliament,” she told news.com.au on Thursday.

“You cannot tell me that they have more pressure on them than the Treasurer? Or the Prime Minister come to that.”

Senator Jacqui Lambie wants to see the salary of Australia’s highest-paid bureaucrats capped at $500,000.

Senator Lambie labelled it a “disgrace” that some bureaucrats earned more than $1 million, adding it does not pass the pub test.

“How can they relate to the community they’re supposed to serve, while they pocket their $1 million dollar salaries?” she asked.

“If you halved their current remuneration, they’d still be in the top one per cent of income earners in the country. How does that make sense?”

Senator Lambie last year took to social media to highlight the disparity in pay between the senior officials and some of the ministers they’re responsible for.

“Millions struggle to make ends meet, yet taxpayer money lines the pockets of the privileged, where’s the fairness in that? TIME TO CAP THEIR SALARIES!” she wrote.

Taxpayers fed up with exorbitant pay

Australia’s senior bureaucrats are among the world’s highest paid, and that has irked taxpayers over the years, as they deal with a cost-of-living crisis on multiple fronts.   :(

“How can a government employee earn more than the prime minister? How can a government role be more important than being the ‘CEO of the country’?” one Reddit user asked.

“How in the hell does a public servant earn this much? Particularly when there’s no accountability. Almost double the PM’s salary!!” another added.

“What a rip off of taxpayers’ money,” a third wrote.

But others argued the salary was justified due to the nature of the position.

“It’s a tricky balance because the level of responsibility is comparable to a major corporation, so you need to attract good candidates. They’re more accountable than the average corporate CEO as well,” one wrote on a Facebook post about their salaries.

“Most people couldn’t do these jobs, and of the ones that can, most don’t want to work this hard,” a user on Reddit commented.

I think it’s good if people are paid well as long as their (sic) clock in hours and work performance are applicable,” another added.

Lambie backed by fellow Senator

Another MP championing the review is ACT Senator David Pocock.

“When departmental secretaries are earning close to 10 times the average Australian wage, and seven of them are clearing a million dollars [in actual pay] a year, questions have to be asked,” he said in a statement to The Sydney Morning Herald.

“These salaries are well beyond what counterparts in comparable countries are paid, and are out of line with what Australians expect.

“I welcome the decision of the Remuneration Tribunal taking a look at them.”

Senator David Pocock has also welcomed the review.

It was only mid-last year when the pay packets of bureaucrats and parliamentarians were given a 2.4 per cent bump in July last year by the Remuneration Tribunal.

The tribunal, an independent statutory body, determines, reports and provides advice on numeration, allowance and entitlements of the likes of federal parliamentarians, judges of federal courts and secretaries of departments.

In a statement, the tribunal said the pay of department secretaries had evolved over the decades due to changes in “work value, complexity and APS-wide renumeration structures”.

“Current arrangements have not been comprehensively examined for nearly 15 years, and the tribunal considers a full review both timely and appropriate,” it said.

“The tribunal recognises the strong public interest in the remuneration of senior public officials and is committed to ensuring arrangements remain fair, transparent and aligned with contemporary expectations.”

The tribunal is open to receiving written submissions on matters such as the overall level and structure, remuneration, and pay relativities with other senior public offices.

Senator Lambie believes the tribunal is “part of the problem”.

“I’m concerned this review will result in a document that provides support for their ridiculous salaries,” she told news.com.au.

“I want the Tribunal to conduct an open review, meaning anyone can make submissions, with all submissions and the Tribunal’s full determination and its basis made public.”

They say: "Pay peanuts - you get monkeys."

In my experience, highly paid managers are just very expensive monkeys.  ;)

Pay bigger monkeys more peanuts you get more monkey sh1t.

My issue is with appointments arbitrary by government of the day - meaning the head of any department etc is in the pocket of the government of the day... a clear breach of the division of powers in our form of democracy, and a clear precursor of total governance by the government of the day through its chosen Gauleiters and Kommissars.

History shows us more than clearly where that leads...  if I have to tell you you are already beyond help.

Hands up those who want direct control over every individual by this government or its opposition.

What this has become, in reality - in El Grande Republica Da San Austrador - that petty banana republic dictatorshipin the South Seas ruled by two parties - is the exact same as handing out of all the best jobs with artificially bloated perks and salaries to all the old mates of the Presidente and his cohorts ... the transfer of public moneys into the hands of the select few AGAIN, just like public service, NDIS and quite a few other blatant rorts to suit some and not ALL equally as demanded b y our form of culture and society and government.

THAT is how this country has always worked - by preference and nepotism... and they even made it public policy when they brought in affirmative action for the sheilas, the Abos, and those who couldn't even speak-a da lingo - after which all of hell followed for the majority subsisting at the bottom.

There is no place in a true democracy of equals for quotas.

Look at the state of the nation right now.

---

No public servant should be paid more than the prime minister.

If they believe that they are worth more best of luck don’t let the door hit on your arse on your way out.

So many of these highly paid jobs could and should be replaced with AI

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-20231106-p5ehta


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

Daughter of Iranian diplomat accused of funnelling money to Hezbollah living and working in Australia
The data analyst, who is now an Australian citizen, is the daughter of an Iranian diplomat implicated in a money-laundering scheme to aid Hezbollah.


The daughter of a senior Iranian diplomat accused of smuggling money for Hezbollah into Lebanon is working as an analyst for Queensland Health and has earned Australian citizenship.

The Australian can reveal computational biologist Atefeh Taherian Fard, a health academic who rose through the ranks at the University of Queensland over more than a decade, is the daughter of Iran’s former ambassador to Turkey, Mohammad Ebrahim Taherian Fard.

International media linked Mr Fard to a regime-run money laundering racket where diplomats would travel into Lebanon through Beirut Airport carrying suitcases stuffed with American dollars to soften Hezbollah’s funding shortfall after Israel’s relentless campaign against it and the 2024 ground invasion.

Dr Fard is the second child of a regime official implicated in terror offences found by this masthead to be living in Australia. Western democracies have become increasingly vigilant to the presence of regime gentry living abroad.

Iranian-Australian activist Ahmad Rezaei* said he struck up a friendship with Dr Fard and her then-husband, Shahin Firouztash, in 2018. A mutual friend had already told him she was the former ambassador’s daughter.

“Atefeh was extremely reluctant to mingle and acquaint with other ethnic Iranians,” he told The Australian. “Atefeh evaded any and all questions about her past, while Shahin would go silent at the slightest hint, to the point that it felt offending.

“Although (the mutual friend) had told us about Atefeh’s family ties, the subject was treated like a serious taboo. Every time our conversation seemed to lead in that direction, we were faced with … facial gestures that served to cut us off abruptly. Atefeh and Shahin never carried a family album to show.”

Arriving in Australia in the early 2010s, Dr Fard studied a doctorate of philosophy at UQ, before pursuing postdoctoral research fellowships – first at the Queensland University of Technology, then UQ’s Institute for Bio­engineering and Nanotechnology.

The Australian understands she was granted citizenship in 2019 when former opposition leader Peter Dutton was home affairs minister.