Some Rann Government ‘Spin Doctors’ and staff have just received massive pay increases of up to $26,000 per year and up to 16.8 per cent for one year.
Liberal Member of the Legislative Council Rob Lucas said today that at a time when Premier Rann is fighting pay increases for nurses, dentists, psychiatrists and other public sector employees, he has just approved massive pay increases for some of his own staff.
Today’s Government Gazette shows that some of Mr Rann’s own personal staff received increases as follows:
2006 Salary 2007 Salary Increase ($) Increase (%)
Peter Chataway 154,167 180,090 25,923 16.8
Nick Alexandrides 137,037 159,563 22,526 16.4
Jill Bottrall 130,186 141,833 11,647 8.9
Paul Flanagan 127,503 138,690 11,187 8.8
Ethne Lange 72,843 84,917 12,074 16.6
The Government Gazette also reveals that many other staff received increases of between 3 and 8 per cent. With respect to Mr Alexandrides, he has recently become Chief of Staff to the Premier after being Deputy Chief of Staff.
“Premier Rann needs to explain why members of his own personal staff deserved pay increases of up to 16.8 per cent for one year when he is opposing pay increases for nurses, dentists, psychiatrists and other public sector employees at significantly lower levels than 16.8 per cent per year.
“There is clearly something wrong with Premier Rann’s priorities because he is now employing 84 more ‘Spin Doctors’ and other staff in Ministerial offices than the former Liberal Government in 2002.
“In fact, Premier Rann is wasting about $25 million over four years due to this explosion in staff numbers.
“This level of wastage will now be further increased by this massive increase in pay levels.”