Last week, I reported an AFR analysis of 16 financial reports from federal agencies, which revealed that 14 had unbudgeted increases in staff expenses totaling $841 million.
Budget watcher Chris Richardson warned that the wage blowout could threaten the federal budget’s March forecast of a $42 billion deficit for this financial year, as could the billions of dollars in ‘funding cliffs’, which are government programs that have expired or are due to expire this year.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released data on public sector wages, which grew by 3.3% across all levels of government between June 2024 and June 2025, while wages paid surged by 7.6%
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