E : Our People
This section describes the employment and post-employment benefits provided to Finance employees engaged under the Department of Finance Enterprise Agreement 2015-2018 and Public Service Act 1999.
As part of its Administered operations, Finance facilitates payment of salary and related benefits to staff employed by current and former Members of Parliament under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984 (MOP(S) Act) as well as payment of post-employment benefits for former Parliamentarians and Prime Ministers under relevant legislation.
Superannuation payments made to former Commonwealth employees which are also administered by Finance on behalf of the Government are not included in the tables below. These are disclosed in Note C3.
In the following note disclosures, Departmental and Administered items are included together for presentation purposes only and these balances should not be compared.
E1 : Employee expenses
Policy and measurement
Personal leave
Personal leave is expensed in the year that it is taken.
Superannuation expense
Finance’s staff are members of the CSS, PSS, PSSap, or other non-government superannuation funds. The CSS and PSS are defined benefit schemes. The PSSap is a defined contribution scheme. Finance makes employer contributions to employees' defined benefit schemes at rates determined by an actuary to be sufficient to meet the current cost to the Government. Finance accounts for these amounts as if they were contributions to defined contribution plans.
| Departmental | Administered | |||
| 30 June | 30 June | 30 June | 30 June | |
| 2017 | 2016 | 2017 | 2016 | |
| $'000 | $'000 | $'000 | $'000 | |
| Wages and salaries | 127,734 | 122,179 | 187,882 | 185,062 |
| Superannuation expense | ||||
| Defined contribution plans | 13,991 | 14,136 | 30,247 | 29,784 |
| Defined benefit plans | 10,714 | 10,297 | 7,562 | 6,870 |
| Leave and other entitlements | 12,538 | 20,422 | 17,870 | 14,805 |
| Increase (decrease) in post-employment benefits liability1 | - | - | (75,596) | 62,878 |
| Separations and redundancies | 2,952 | 2,377 | 10,296 | 5,995 |
| Other employee expenses | 689 | 947 | 16,838 | 17,031 |
| Total employee expenses | 168,618 | 170,358 | 195,099 | 322,425 |
1The Royal Assent of the Parliamentary Entitlements Legislation Amendment Act 2017 on 22 February 2017 included changes to parliamentary retirement travel resulting in a significant reduction to the provision for parliamentary retirement travel (formerly Life Gold Pass). The decrease in the current year is also caused by the reduction in the provision for former Prime Ministers entitlements following actuarial movements.
