Job listing with Melbourne’s Suburban Railway Loop for an inclusivity manager lambasted online
Huge salary for ‘inclusion and diversity’ manager on $100 MILLION suburban rail line exposes everything wrong with the public sector
- Nearly a quarter of a million dollars inclusivity vacancy
- The track is at Victoria’s Suburban Railway Link Authority
The Victorian government has been criticized for offering a huge salary in an advertisement for an ‘inclusivity management’ job on a railway project, at the taxpayer’s expense.
The Manager of Inclusion and Diversity comes with an extraordinary annual salary of $175,731 to $238,997 – as advertised by the Suburban Railway Link Authority (SLRA) on Wednesday.
The successful applicant will be responsible for ‘providing expert advice and services to the organization to ensure SRLA is an inclusive and diverse workplace’.
They would also lead initiatives through design and development that would “establish SLRA as a workplace that promotes through its commitment to inclusion and diversity.”
The Suburban Railway Link is a hugely expensive new rail line that circles the suburbs from Cheltenham in the east to Werribee in the west via the airport, the cost of which is predicted to exceed $100 billion when completed in 2085.
A job posting for an inclusion and diversity manager at the Suburban Rail Look Authority with a salary of nearly a quarter of a million dollars has been criticized online (pictured)
The magnitude of the lavish spending on the project is highlighted by the huge salary paid to the diversity manager, and critics are alternately enraged and bewildered by the ad.
The Australian’s Washington correspondent, Adam Creighton, took to Twitter to describe the job as ‘What’s wrong with Australia in a single vacancy’.
“There is no easier way in the world to make $238,000 other than winning the lottery,” replied Will Kingston, another journalist.
‘Quarter of a million dollars a year!! What a clerk,” one user commented under Creighton’s post.
“Taxpayers are footing the bill to ensure quotas are more important than quality,” wrote another.
However, some commentators supported the position and generous pay.
“Huge project, think the pay is reasonable,” one wrote.
“On a positive note, it would help on the old pay gap front,” replied another.
The job posting emphasizes that the position offers personal and professional development opportunities within an ‘equal opportunity employer’.
“The Manager, Inclusion and Diversity will be passionate about Inclusion and Diversity,” the listing reads.
“You will be responsible for leading the development of inclusion and diversity frameworks and programs, which will ensure that SRLA is an inclusive workplace where everyone feels safe to be themselves at work.”
Melbourne’s proposed Suburban Rail Loop (pictured) had ballooned its original estimated budget of $50 billion to about $125 billion on completion in 2085
The 90 km Suburban Railway Link project was initially expected to cost $50 billion when it was first announced by the state government in 2018, but has already blown up to at least double that.
Construction has already begun on two of the proposed phases, from Melbourne Airport to Sunshine and from Cheltenham to Box Hill.
Secretary of State Daniel Andrews told the media in August last year that the government had provided the $50 billion as an estimate but specified “no final cost.”
“We are starting this project, it is fully funded from the state’s point of view,” he said.
“A surefire way to make the Suburban Rail Loop cost more is to scrap it, delay it, shelve it.”
Critics of the project have also questioned demand for the completed loop, which travels from one outer suburban area to another without entering the city.