Bureaucratic bloat punches hole in federal budget

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Budget watcher Chris Richardson says that public service wage pressures are exceeding budget forecasts.

“It would appear the wage pressure is beating the budget forecast and that was always the likely outcome”, he said.

Richardson’s comments follow an AFR analysis of 16 financial reports by federal agencies, which revealed that 14 had unbudgeted increases in staff expenses totalling $841 million.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.