Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We need to put an end to the culture of obscene entitlement at the top of our universities and federal bureaucracy. This is what my bills will do. A big shout-out to the former senator Rex Patrick for working with me over the summer on this. In 2023, the Group of Eight vice-chancellors, the self-proclaimed elite of our tertiary education sector, averaged close to $1.3 million a year in salaries and generous entitlements, often including luxurious housing. More than a dozen vice-chancellors are on $1 million packages. With few exceptions, other vice-chancellors are pulling in between 800,000 and 950,000 bucks a year. Those salaries are much more than is paid to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister or the federal Treasurer. Over the past 40 years, our universities have gone from nation-building places of learning to greedy corporate entities.

Recent research by the Australia Institute has shown there's no correlation between vice-chancellors' pay and student satisfaction. I'm sure you vice-chancellors know that. Universities with higher paid vice-chancellors are more likely to have lower student satisfaction—how about that? The four unis with the highest student satisfaction ratings pay their vice-chancellors less than average. The government says it wants a governance inquiry into universities. That's just spending more taxpayer money to justify setting up a committee to talk about the issue.

Vice-chancellors are largely funded by the federal government, and the spend is overseen by its state counterparts. Maybe that's part of your problem. Our states don't care because it's not their money; it's the Commonwealth's money. To add insult to injury, these huge salaries are being paid at the top of an industry that engages in massive wage theft from the poorly paid staff who actually teach our kids—shameful! Students are doing it tough. HECS debts have doubled, they can't find housing, and uni fees have gone through the roof.

While we're at it, we also need to deal with the overly bloated, ready-to-explode salaries of the departmental secretaries. I'm not talking about the public servants who do the hard work; I'm talking about the fat cats at the top. Most departmental secretaries are on close to $1 million a year, with some getting seven-figure pay packages. They earn much more than the Prime Minister does. How shameful is that? It's an absolute disgrace. They're shamelessly feathering their own nests while most Australians are having to deal with the cost of living, completely disconnected.

We've got to pull these people back down to earth and knock them off their pedestals. It's about time and it's way overdue. The head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet gets over $1 million a year. The secretaries of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Defence and Home Affairs are not far behind on their fat cat salaries of close to $1 million. Meanwhile, other department heads get nearly $1 million anyway, and that's just their pay. That does not include their entitlements on top. The Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet shouldn't be earning more than the Prime Minister, and other department secretaries and agency heads should not earn more than the federal Treasurer. In America, the Secretary of Defense is looking after a budget that is bigger than the whole of the Australian federal budget, and he's paid $430,000 a year—work it out! Our defence secretary gets more than double that. The defenders of these massive pay packets say, 'We need the best people.' That's rubbish. How is Kathryn 'Robodebt' Campbell a decent person? How was she the best person? How can any of them appreciate the struggles of the average Aussie family when they're rolling in taxpayer funded cash?

I feel there is a massive disconnect here. Vice-chancellors are supposed to be there to put the education of Australians first. Department secretaries are supposed to put their country first. But—what do you know?—they put self before service. That's what they've been doing. It's self before service. They don't put you first, they don't put our kids first, and they don't care about you normal people out there in Australia. Otherwise they'd be up here, standing with me and saying, 'Yes, we don't deserve this money.' But do you think you'll see any of them standing near me? No, you won't. With their overinflated egos and their overpayments, you won't see them standing with Jacqui Lambie, fighting this.

I can tell you they have no conscience, and I am hoping that, over the next few months—no doubt this won't get done through the election—I will get the support of all the senators in this chamber, because it's about time they were told. This overpayment of our vice-chancellors and our top bureaucrats has to stop. It is completely and utterly out of control. Both you major parties have put us in this situation, and it's about time you told the people what your policy is going to be to reduce their payments after the next election. Australians are out there waiting. They are frothing at the mouth, waiting for you to say how you're going to fix your mistakes from the past. This is the first one they want done.