The Department for Education, Children and Young People has paid more than $415,000 to 10 departing senior executives since July 2024, right to information documents show.
The department said the figures reflected each person’s full final payment, including normal payments and accrued leave entitlements.
Labor has criticised the payments, saying they come while the government is “cutting $228 million from the department.”
The $228 million is the department’s savings target over four years, starting at $25 million in 2026-27 and rising to $78.2 million in 2029-30.
The department has previously said the savings will be met through efficiency measures and changes to how it operates, rather than by withdrawing core services.
The largest single payment was $122,773, in the 2025-26 financial year.
Five executives left in 2025-26, at a total cost of $288,807, compared with two in 2024-25 at a cost of $16,690.
Three more have left since July, with $110,311 paid out so far this financial year.
Labor leader Josh Willie said the government was “paying out executive severance payments to the tune of $415,000” while cutting services, including the inclusive practice team, which supports students with disability.
“It is nonsensical that they’re cutting back on that team when we have such high rates of disability across our education system,” he said.
“This government is all at sea when it comes to managing the budget.”
Willie said executive numbers in the department had gone up every year since 2024, pointing to the department’s annual reports.
“It doesn’t make any sense that they’re employing more executives and then paying out other executives,” he said.
The government responded by accusing Willie of attacking his own policy.
In a statement titled “Well, which is it?”, Treasurer Eric Abetz pointed to comments Willie made last year, when he said trimming the senior executive service would be “far more efficient” than cutting rank-and-file public service staff.
Abetz said Willie appeared to be “attacking his own policy” and needed to explain the shift.
Deputy Premier Guy Barnett said Willie seemed “very confused”.
“He’s on the one hand been very critical of the government for right-sizing the public service – including at a senior level – and yet he’s now complaining about the process,” Barnett said.
Government minister Nick Duigan said Labor had originally called for the government to focus on executives in the department.
“It seems strange that they would now be criticising that exact move,” he said.
Asked whether it was a change of position, Willie said: “Not at all.”
He said his concern was that executive numbers kept rising while the department paid other executives to leave.
“This government manages the budget so badly, they keep employing more executives in the department and they keep paying them out,” he said.
“Each year executive positions are going up and yet they’re still paying out severance payments at the same time. That’s mismanagement of the budget.”
