How much is a speechwriter worth? There were splutters of outrage last week when it was revealed that NDIS and Government Services Minister Bill Shorten has a speechwriter who is earning $310,000 a year (including super and entitlements). It wasn’t reported that way, though. The full value of Julianne Stewart’s two-year contract was cited – the far sexier figure of $620,000.
Government Services Minister Bill Shorten and speechwriter Julianne Stewart. The matter was raised in Senate estimates by Senator Linda Reynolds, hot off the heels of her private legal pursuit of her former staffer Brittany Higgins, and Higgins’ partner, for defamation. Reynolds asked a question about the contract between Stewart and Services Australia (the huge government agency that oversees payments for Centrelink, Medicare and the aged pension).
She mentioned Stewart by name and read out the Sydney suburb where she lives. Then NSW Liberal Senator Maria Kovacic picked up the thread. “Senators who work in this building get paid about $230,000 a year,” she said.
“Shadow ministers get paid less than that. MPs in the government and senators in the government, on the crossbench and in the opposition, get paid less than the speechwriter that minister Shorten, it appears, has personally requested to write speeches for him.” Posting afterwards on her Facebook page, Reynolds wrote: “Even after 10 years of Senate Estimates, I can still be surprised! During a cost of living crisis, it is inexpli.
