It's the public service salaries and levels that drive the high wages without doubt. In some cases the wage differences are understandable, because people work in policy departments and are often professionals. In other cases it's a joke. A friend of my other half's is a nice lady, but a career public servant, and has no idea how good her working conditions are given her ability and quals. A mate of mine is a CFO in a small department....you should see the trouble he had getting rid of a staff member who was not capable of doing any part of her job.
We should be clear about the land release stuff....this happens in every state....just more so in the ACT because the government has alternate sources of income to that from rates/land tax.
There are about 60 (not an exaggeration) people who need to be performance managed out of the government agency i work for because a previous manager had palmed off the recruitment to someone not qualified so they asked people who already worked there if they knew any neighbours or relatives who wanted a job with no experience necessary.
Of course experience is essential for the roles so they are now stuck with 60 people who they can't get rid of because it is a 9 month process that has to be completed to near perfection to stick........so they just suck it up.
The manager who palmed it off has been promoted twice since then, even with her superiors knowledge of her f**k up.
For the record i work in the IT section that supports the area and have nothing to do with the manager or those jobs, i just happen to be the expert who is directly affected by the 60 useless staff as i am continually engaged to find a solution to their issue and automate processes so they can't stuff them up.
TLDR - get a government job because they accept absolute mediocrity and it is near impossible to get fired.........
