Australia’s sovereign wealth fund pays like a private bank — and taxpayers are left to applaud politely

Australia has managed to produce the familiar modern contradiction: a public institution paying private-sector money, then asking the public to admire its discipline. The Future Fund disclosed that 11 staff received more than A$1 million last year, with one manager taking home a package of A$1.5 million — more than double Anthony Albanese’s base salary of A$622,000.

The fund is not some obscure bureau pushing paper. Its staff oversee investments worth about A$350 billion, and the government says that scale demands people who can operate in a highly competitive global market. On that logic, the pay packets are not indulgence but necessity, a sort of financial Darwinism with Commonwealth branding.

Still, the optics are hard to improve. The 11 employees are paid more than federal cabinet ministers and all but one department secretary, including the heads of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency and the federal police. That alone tells you something about where the real prestige lies in government: not in public service, but in managing assets large enough to justify a salary structure that would make most taxpayers blink twice.

The issue surfaced after Greens senator Barbara Pocock pressed public service minister Katy Gallagher in August for an explanation. Gallagher’s office responded this week in parliament, saying the fund had delivered a 14.8 per cent return in the 12 months to June 2026, adding A$37.4 billion and lifting the portfolio to more than A$350 billion. The same response said the salaries complied with government rules, which allow performance bonuses only in limited circumstances, including roles involving significant investment risk and entities operating in commercial markets.

That may satisfy the rulebook. It is less likely to satisfy people watching job cuts spread through the public sector. The National Disability Insurance Agency has announced voluntary redundancies for the first time since it was created in 2013, and other departments — including the prime minister’s own, home affairs, and Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water — have also announced cuts.

Pocock was unimpressed, arguing that most taxpayers would question whether the payments represent value for money. She said Australians facing higher living costs would be outraged to learn that a dozen public servants are earning over a million dollars, and in some cases twice what the prime minister earns. Her point is plain enough: if the state wants restraint from everyone else, it should not reserve extravagance for itself.

The Future Fund declined to comment. That silence may be wise, if not especially elegant. After all, the fund was criticised in December for spending A$20,000 on a US hotel scoping trip for the chief executive’s then-assistant, a journey that the fund later told a Senate estimates hearing had produced annual savings of A$30,000. The assistant and another person flew business class.

So the pattern is clear enough. The fund has delivered strong returns, and it wants the freedom to pay for talent as if it were a global investment house. The government, meanwhile, insists that the rules permit it. But in a country where public institutions are cutting staff and households are counting every dollar, million-dollar remuneration packages will not be mistaken for humility. They are, at best, a reminder that public money has a habit of becoming very generous once it reaches the right desk.

Written by Freya Stensrud freya.stensrud@alpineweekly.com