While the focus of The Mandarin’s secretaries’ salary series is on the earnings of departmental heads, it’s interesting to compare them with the pay packets of those who manage other federal public sector bodies.
We have selected 20 prominent public servants to see how much they made in 2022-23.
Cumulative remuneration
The following is that list by total remuneration, based on their agency’s respective annual reports.
| Name | Agency | Title | Total remuneration |
| Chris Jordan | ATO | Commissioner | $915,680 |
| Gina Cass-Gottlieb | ACCC | Chair | $840,628 |
| Larry Marshall | CSIRO | Chief executive | $999,629 |
| Gordon de Brouwer | PM&C | Public sector reform secretary PLUS APS commission | $804,173 |
| Kathryn Campbell | Defence | Senior advisor AUKUS | $835,970 |
| Rebecca Skinner | Services Australia | CEO (former) | $806,315 |
| Rachel Noble | Australian Signals Directorate | Director-general | $775,031 |
| Reece P Kershaw | AFP | Commissioner | $762,125 |
| David Gruen | ABS | Australian statistician | $768,808 |
| Peter Woolcott | APSC | Commissioner (former) | $779,899 |
| Michael Brennan | Productivity Commission | Commissioner | $645,831 |
| Jody Broun | NIAA | CEO | $628,363 |
| Mike Burgess | ASIO | Director-general | $689,400 |
| Tom Rogers | AEC | Electoral commissioner | $622,969 |
| Nerida O’Loughlin | ACMA | Chair | $610,943 |
| Chris Fechner | DTA | CEO | $565,448 |
| Rosalind Croucher | Australian Human Rights Commission | President | $525,892 |
| Angelene Falk | OAIC | Commissioner | $528,559 |
| Iain Anderson | Commonwealth ombud | Commonwealth ombud | $494,530 |
| Julie Inman Grant | eSafety commissioner | eSafety commissioner | $448,054 |
*No longer in role
** Salary listed is a combination of de Brouwer’s salary as the former public sector reform secretary in PM&C and APS commissioner
The average of these senior public servants’ total remuneration was $702,412.
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