The trouble-plagued Perth Mint paid millions of dollars in staff bonuses at the same time as its West Australian government owners were imposing tight wage caps on public servants.
WA Premier Mark McGowan on Friday acknowledged he was unaware that $7.7 million was paid out under an incentive scheme in the three years to the end of June 2021 at Gold Corporation, which owns and runs the historic mint.
Annual reports filed by Gold Corp show the state-owned entity shelled out $1.4 million in 2018-19, $2.8 million in 2019-20 and $3.5 million in 2020-21 in a bid to "motivate all staff".
The payments were made through a separate scheme to one paused by Mr McGowan in 2017 under which senior staff at Perth Mint were able to collect more lucrative bonuses based on their performance.
At the time of the incentive payments, other workers in the public sector were subject to wage price increases of $1,000 a year, while senior mandarins, judges and politicians had their pay frozen.
Mr McGowan, who was visiting Albany, said he had been told there were restrictions to the bonuses that were paid to Gold Corp staff.
"The advice I have was that there was some restriction on the bonuses which caused some angst amongst some of the staff at the Gold Corp," Mr McGowan said.
Mr McGowan declined to answer whether he supported the decision by the Perth Mint board to approve the incentive payments, given the advice to restrict bonuses.
The board has been led by former Rio Tinto boss Sam Walsh since January 2019.
"I don’t know the detail of that," he said.
"I was advised there was some restriction on the bonus payments."
McGowan touts fiscal record
Mr McGowan has long made a virtue of his decision to limit public sector wage spending in a bid to tackle what he described in 2017 as "the worst set of finances since the Great Depression".
"The state was rapidly heading into a dire financial situation under our predecessors. We turned all that around," he said.
The Premier's comments came after a Four Corners investigation revealed that the Perth Mint is facing a potential $9 billion recall of gold bars after selling diluted gold to China.
The practice allegedly took place between 2018 and September 2021 — largely covering the period in which company-wide incentives were paid during the broader public sector wage crackdown.
A Perth Mint spokesperson said Gold Corporation "adhered to the State Wages Policy Statement 2017".
"Staff incentive scheme payments were honoured in line with Gold Corporation's contractual provisions," they said.
