Commission Implausible

Sitting atop the Victorian Government’s legions of public servants is a growing band of highly paid unelected bosses doing the jobs of Ministers. By James Mathias.

The largest expense of the Victorian Labor Government, the wages of its public servants, has climbed 40 per cent over the last four years to $26.6 billion. The additional 46,000 employees the Government has added comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the regime, however it’s the top heavy, high cost and questionable additional commissioners and their staff that highlight Government waste at its most shocking.

Analysis conducted by the Menzies Research Centre shows that there are now more than 50 commissioners in Victoria that range from the essential to the puzzling. The Victorian Government, for example, has a separate commissioner for Treaty Advancement, for Aboriginal Children, and for Young People. The Victorian Multicultural Commission has no fewer than 12 commissioners.

In NSW, the role of the electoral commission is carried out by one commissioner overseeing the whole operation, but in Victoria the role is broken into two separate commissioners. The remit of the additional Electoral Boundaries Commissioner is to “establish and maintain electorates of approximately equal enrolment.” An essential duty but it’s questionable whether there is a need for an additional commissioner.

The cost to taxpayers for every commissioner is enormous. The wage bracket per commissioner, determined by none other than the Victorian Public Sector Commissioner, is up to $701,800 per year often over a five-year statutory appointment – $3.5 million per commissioner, per appointment.

Under the commissioner, staff are employed on Senior Executive Service bands 1 through to 3 at a cost to the taxpayer between $192,800 to $479,900 per staff member per year.

The Andrews Government’s newest commissioner, ordained by legislation passed two weeks ago, will oversee the Wage Inspectorate, which investigates reportts of businesses deliberately underpaying employees.

In a heated exchange in the Legislative Council prior to the passage of the legislation, Bev McArthur MP asked the Government if it had thought about the cost of the office and how many new positions it was creating. The Government, as it turns out hadn’t even thought about it.

Mrs McArthur: Minister, how many full-time equivalent employees is it envisaged that Wage Inspectorate Victoria will hire for the purposes set out in this legislation? 

Gayle Tierney (Minister for Training and Skills): That has not been determined at this point in time.

Mrs McArthur: Minister, will new employees of Wage Inspectorate Victoria be paid on the bands between senior executive service 1 through to 3, and is the minister aware that the wage range for public servants on these wage bands is between $192 800 and $479 900 per year?

Ms Tierney: As I have already indicated, the number of employees has not been determined, nor has the classification structure.

Following the passage of the bill, this new commission was given extraordinary powers to raid workplaces, compel businesses to produce documents and even bring people in for questioning.

Within the new powers handed to the commissioner, the burden of proof for an offence related to the underpayment of wages is lower than if an employer actually stuck their hand in the pocket of an employee and physically stole the same money under the Victorian Crimes Act. The penalty for being found guilty after prosecution from Wage Inspectorate Victoria is up to 10 years in jail.

The chilling reality is that these unelected commissioners have extraordinary powers.

There are also questions surrounding just who gets these well-paid, all-powerful positions, given it is at the whim of the Government to appoint who it wishes. Take for example the head of the Transport Accident Commission, who is a former senior adviser to the Minister for Police.

With so many commissioners it’s also common for them to be duplicating each other’s roles. The Small Business Commissioner “contribute[s] to the Government’s program to reduce red tape affecting businesses by promoting greater efficiency and effectiveness in the administration and enforcement of regulation.” The Better Regulation Commissioner, meanwhile, “work[s] to boost Victoria's productivity, competitiveness and economic and jobs growth by cutting red tape and improving regulation.” 

The Local Jobs First Commissioner “advocate[s] on behalf of Victorian SMEs, as well as promoting the employment of apprentices, trainees and cadets on government projects,” which begs the question, what does the Victorian Skills Commissioner do?

Other areas that could be streamlined are the duplication between the Health Complaints Commissioner and Mental Health Complaints Commissioner or perhaps between the Disability Services Commissioner and the Disability Worker Commissioner.

There is one commissioner whose job has recently become more onerous than the others’, though. Despite this massive growth in commissioners and their staff during the past four years, the Victorian Information Commissioner has had to react to a Government not entirely enamoured with transparency. A report released earlier this year by Commissioner Sven Bluemmel showed how during the past four years the number of Freedom of Information decision makers has actually decreased by 5.2 per cent which has led to the number of FOI’s being responded to on time has dropped by more than 12 per cent.

Commissioners have extraordinary powers and many of them are indisputable for their public good. However, the ongoing creation of commissioners, who mostly merely do the jobs of the elected Minister, is concerning as it hands these powers to unelected officials at enormous costs to taxpayers.

Now there’s a problem for the State Revenue Office Commissioner.