Public Service Salaries

The Hon. S.L. GAME (14:40): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Attorney-General, representing the Treasurer, about salaries.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: South Australia already has the highest electricity prices in the nation and salaries here are lower, which means South Australians worry about how they are going to pay the next energy bill, and they get angry when they find the government is using their taxes to create an elite class of people in society. One such elite is newly appointed Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, whose salary is now $709,000 plus allowances.

During the yes vote campaign, Ms Mostyn lectured a breakfast audience I was at that we must vote yes if we care about disadvantage. I do care about disadvantage, which is why I voted no, along with 65 per cent of people voting in this state. The South Australian state government is just as guilty as the federal government of overpaying public servants, including $710,670 to the head of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, $653,000 to the head of Health and Wellbeing, and $560,788 to the head of the Office of Hydrogen Power.

My questions to the Attorney-General are: what is the government going to do to bring excessively high Public Service remuneration packages in line with community expectations, and what can the government do to stop excessively overpaid elites lecturing us about disadvantage?

The PRESIDENT: I call the Attorney-General. Attorney, you will ignore the fair bit of opinion that was in that question.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:42): Thank you, sir. In relation to the second question, I think she was referring to, from the explanation and opinion, a matter that is a federal matter. In relation to the first question, I think it can be simply answered by, if we weren't paying salaries that were commensurate with what people can earn elsewhere, whether it be in other jurisdictions or in the private sector, I think we would be getting similar complaints about not having people up to a standard to run very, very complicated departments in the state.