The Andrews Labor Government has seen fit to award several Department of Transport bureaucrats a huge pay rise, despite having put thousands of Victorians into lockdown, costing people their businesses and livelihoods.
On page 93 of the Department of Transport’s questionnaire to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, figures show that during the worst of the pandemics effects on Victorians, nine departmental staff received pay increases of between 10 and 15 per cent, whilst extraordinarily another nine staff received pay increases in excess of 15 per cent.
Secretary of the Department of Transport, Paul Younis could not provide a justification for the pay increases, despite thousands of ordinary Victorians struggling financially with the effects of COVID-19 imposed by the botched response of the Andrews Labor Government. Mr. Younis could only offer up that assessments had been done to make sure that ‘people were being paid properly for the job they were doing’, however he refused to utter the words ‘pay rise’.
When somebody is working the same job, and is all of a sudden paid better for doing that same job – it is a pay rise. No amount of government spin can get away from that.
Awarding Transport Department staff huge pay rises, when projects like the West Gate Tunnel, North East Link, Suburban Rail Loop and others are mired in cost and time blowouts, is an extraordinary affront to the Victorian public.
Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Roads (Metropolitan), Brad Battin:
“The decision by Daniel Andrews to approve 10 and 15 per cent pay rises to transport bureaucrats is sickening when the Victorian community continue to suffer.
“The Andrews Labor Government is proving time and time again that their transport projects run late, with more than $25 billion over budget and are constantly mired in controversy. On what planet does Daniel Andrews think that 15 per cent pay rises are justified?
“This is another horrendous example of how out of touch the Andrews Labor Government are with public expectation. The Victorian public will be rightly shocked at these revelations.”
