A senior public servant has walked away with a near million-dollar performance bonus in 2025, while the federal government was cracking down on executive excess during a cost-of-living crisis.
Although front-line public servants battled for inflation-matching pay, the senior official pocketed a $927,719 bonus.
This sum exceeded the $408,610 bonus paid to another senior executive service (SES) Band 3 manager in 2024 and was above the median $30,000 bonus paid to three SES 3 executives in 2023.
The payout belonged to Future Fund Management Agency chief executive Dr Raphael Arndt, taking his pay for the year to about $1.8 million.
A Future Fund spokesperson said the fund achieved an investment return of 12.2 per cent in the 2025 financial year, adding $27.4 billion to the sovereign wealth fund and bringing three-year returns to $57.9 billion.
The agency's strategy aligned with public service guidelines permitting performance pay for roles involving at-risk investment outcomes in competitive global markets, the spokesperson said.
Although the chief executive's payout revealed the ceiling of executive pay, the 2025 remuneration data from the Australian Public Service Commission showed another anomaly a few steps down the public service ladder.
An Executive Level (EL) 2 public servant earned a total of $1.5 million, comprising a $667,231 base salary and a $781,127 performance bonus.
The EL 2 staff member, a classification usually reserved for mid-level directors, earned more than most departmental secretaries.
In April 2026, the Remuneration Tribunal produced a consultation paper examining senior public servant pay. The paper said erratic executive salaries were compressing the gap between department heads and their direct reports.
It questioned whether Australia's public sector now relied too heavily on high financial incentives rather than intrinsic public-sector motivation to attract and retain leadership.
The 2025 remuneration data also showed executive perks and front-line variable pay were being phased out.
The number of motor vehicle allowances was slashed, falling from 687 recipients in 2023 to 172 in 2025.
Similarly, the total number of performance bonus recipients across the entire workforce fell from 826 to 374 during the same period.
The use of fixed top-of-salary-range payments expanded year on year. In 2023, 10,615 employees received this payment, compared with 13,549 employees in 2025.
Beyond the executive level, the data showed an overall median base salary increase of 6.8 per cent, bringing the overall median to $105,910.
Front-line workers did not receive the 6.8 per cent pay bump, as the median base salary for an APS 4 worker increased by only 4.7 per cent, and that of an APS 5 rose by 3.8 per cent.
The gains reflected the outcomes of a service-wide enterprise bargaining, where the Community and Public Sector Union fought to secure inflation-matching pay deals for the rank-and-file staff.
Although these collective agreements kept everyday workers bound to strict wage parameters, executive compensation continued to operate under flexible individual arrangements outside the bargaining framework
Amid the public service enterprise bargaining agreement, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor renewed a Coalition push for cuts to the public service should he become Prime Minister.
Mr Taylor told potential donors at a Liberal private event that he had always hated the bureaucracy in the public service and had been fighting against it all his life, in a recording obtained by The Canberra Times.
