PLEASE EXPLAIN, JANE?

Hanson lashes out at Deakin chief’s sizeable pay packet

PAULINE Hanson has taken aim at Jane den Hollander’s substantial salary and says the Deakin chief’s successor should be paid half of the retiring professor’s pay packet.

The One Nation leader says the vice chancellor — whose earns nearly $1 million per annum — is part of a protected club of bureaucrats out of step with public expectations over pay.

Senator Hanson said Deakin’s ceremonial head John Stanhope, who also serves as Australia Post chairman, was rubberstamping huge pay packets at taxpayers’ expense.

“(Jane den Hollander) shouldn’t even get half of what she’s being paid. It’s crazy,” she said. “The vice chancellor re- munerations in this country are way, way ahead of the rest of the world. The same positions at some of the world’s top universities — Oxford, Cambridge — are paid less than many Australian universities, including Deakin. And the thing is that Australia only scrapes into the top 20 unis in the world, we’ve got one at number 20.”

According to the latest Deakin annual report from 2016, Professor den Hollander was paid $995,000, although the 2017 figure, yet to be released, is likely to push past the $1m mark due to indexation.

The Deakin chief’s figure is higher than Oxford University vice chancellor Louise Richardson, who earns A$616,000 and Cambridge counterpart Stephen Toope on A$614,000.

Deakin University declined to respond to Senator Hanson’s comments.

Senator Hanson said Corio MP Richard Marles and Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson had failed to challenge the Deakin academic’s “outrageous pay packet.”

More than 50 per cent of Deakin’s income comes from federal government coffers.

“There are many people that live in their electorates that are struggling to get by and they don’t want to say anything because they’re all part of the same champagne set,” she said. “What makes my blood boil is that all these MPs are just protecting each other’s jobs and the jobs of these overpaid bureaucrats, like with Australia Post.”

Senator Hanson made headlines last year for criticising former Australia Post chief Ahmed Fahour’s $5.6m salary and noted that Mr Stanhope had overseen excessive pay packets for both Mr Fahour and Professor den Hollander.

Professor den Hollander’s pay packet isn’t the highest out of the nation’s vice chancellors — the highest earner is Sydney University’s Michael Spence with a $1.4m salary followed by Australian Catholic University’s Greg Craven on $1.25m.

The Deakin vice chancellor indicated she was set to retire from the top administrative position by June 2019.