Public servant wages drown state budgets in debt

Accounting firm EY has released its annual State Budget Monitor, which forecasts that state debt will continue to rise, led by Victoria.

EY attributes part of the blow-out in debt to rising public servant wage costs, with growth in the number of public servants (29%) more than doubling the growth in the population (14%):

“Employee expenses accounted for an average of around 39% of total expenses from FY17 to FY26 and are one of the main reasons governments have consistently underestimated their outgoings”.