GOVERNOR’S PAY

I refer to an article in the Friday 27 August Mercury headed “Governor’s salary soars to $662k.” The Governor of Tasmania’s salary is currently $511,203. Nor has it “gone up by $14,000 this year”; it is unchanged from last year. Nor will the Governor be paid “a salary package of up to $662,000 by 2024-25”. The Governor’s salary is drawn from an annual Reserved by Law allocation, which is always bigger than the actual salary and the unspent portion is returned to the Treasury at the end of each financial year.

I should also point out the Governor’s salary is determined by the Governor of Tasmania Act as being 90 per cent of the salary of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania (which salary itself is calculated as the average of the salaries of the chief justices in South Australia and Western Australia).

David Owen

Official Secretary, Office of the Governor of Tasmania