The APS's march towards $1 million salaries
Successive pay rises have pushed Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Steven Kennedy and Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson past the $1 million mark for the 2025-26 financial year, and their colleagues are not far behind.
Dr Kennedy, who is the country's most senior bureaucrat, earns nearly triple the highest rate for United States departmental secretaries, set at $250,600 USD as of January, or about $386,237 AUD.
The march towards million-dollar pay began just over a decade ago, when new legislation returned the power to set senior public service salaries to the Remuneration Tribunal.
While Dr Kennedy plays a role in deciding pay for some of his colleagues, the greatest influence is exerted by the tribunal.
It recommends secretaries be placed in either an upper or lower level of remuneration, and also considers annual pay rises. The figures it decides on include salary, allowances, benefits and superannuation.
In 2011, the tribunal had been concerned for some time that secretary salaries were well below what they should be, and had not kept pace with the rising earnings of their subordinates in the Senior Executive Service.
It recommended an overhaul of the structure used to determine pay for APS bosses, rebasing the uppermost point - the salary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary - to more than $800,000 by mid-2014.
Ten pay rises since 2011 have brought secretary salaries to where they are today.
If the tribunal decides on a 2 per cent pay rise in 2026, without changing the current structure, four more secretaries will rise above the $1 million mark.
This will include the heads of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Health and Infrastructure.
Two per cent is the lowest pay rise the tribunal has approved since 2011, and public service employees will receive a 3.4 per cent hike in 2026.
While this appears likely given the tribunal's past decisions, it could also decide to hold off.
The tribunal must look at annual wage decisions and also weighs up APS wage increases, consumer price index and wage price index.
In 2020, as the Australian economy faced the COVID-19 pandemic and public sector wages were frozen, the tribunal announced it would not offer a pay rise.
"The Tribunal's primary focus is to provide competitive and equitable remuneration that is appropriate to the responsibilities and experience required of the roles, and that is sufficient to attract and retain people of calibre," it said at the time.
"However, this does not happen in a vacuum. The context of the broader jobs market and the economy are also considered."
The body can also dock a secretary's pay, based on Machinery of Government changes that shrink the scope of their responsibilities, but incumbents are protected from having pay go backwards.
Health secretary Blair Comley has meanwhile received an extra promotion, taking his salary from $910,270 to $983,910, after his department gained oversight of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
While Labor maintains that secretaries' pay is an independent decision, there is room for political intervention.
The tribunal noted in 2020 that it had received a request from then finance minister Mathias Cormann and assistant public service minister Greg Hunt to freeze pay for APS bosses, and opted to comply.
The steady increase has caused concern among some politicians, who earn considerably less than their senior bureacrats.
"They earn more than me," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said when asked about the issue earlier in the year, in reference to his salary of about $622,000.
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie last year called on Parliament to radically reduce the earnings of senior public servants, capping remuneration at about $430,000 unless otherwise approved by the relevant ministers.
"Departmental secretaries have important responsibilities, and their pay should be appropriate to ensure those positions are competitively filled by capable people," Senator Lambie said at the time.
"But the present levels of pay at the top of the bureaucratic and academic trees don't pass the pub test."
Meanwhile, independent senator David Pocock wants to see the tribunal consider performance in its decisions. The current system is based on the size of departments and the scope and complexity of the portfolio.
"Senior public servants in Australia are paid well above those in most comparable OECD countries, including in Europe, the UK and US," Senator Pocock said.
"We want to be able to attract the best and brightest to lead our public service, but at the same time, we need to ensure remuneration is tied to performance and that is lacking in our current system.
"I would like to see reform in this space as we continue to value and build the capacity of the APS more broadly into the future."
Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher told The Canberra Times in March that while she was sympathetic to the public's concerns, "it's hard to unwind a system that's been put in place over many years".
"I get people's concerns with that, I do," Senator Gallagher said at the time.
"I understand it when they see it in isolation, or relate it back to their own experience of work, but I also know how hard [secretaries work].
"These are serious jobs, and we need the best and brightest, and we need to retain them in the public service."
Already some of the world's best-paid senior public servants, Australia's departmental secretaries are on the brink of earning million-dollar pay packets in the coming years.
Successive pay rises have pushed Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Steven Kennedy and Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson past the $1 million mark for the 2025-26 financial year, and their colleagues are not far behind.
Dr Kennedy, who is the country's most senior bureaucrat, earns nearly triple the highest rate for United States departmental secretaries, set at $250,600 USD as of January, or about $386,237 AUD.
The march towards million-dollar pay began just over a decade ago, when new legislation returned the power to set senior public service salaries to the Remuneration Tribunal.
While Dr Kennedy plays a role in deciding pay for some of his colleagues, the greatest influence is exerted by the tribunal.
It recommends secretaries be placed in either an upper or lower level of remuneration, and also considers annual pay rises. The figures it decides on include salary, allowances, benefits and superannuation.
In 2011, the tribunal had been concerned for some time that secretary salaries were well below what they should be, and had not kept pace with the rising earnings of their subordinates in the Senior Executive Service.
It recommended an overhaul of the structure used to determine pay for APS bosses, rebasing the uppermost point - the salary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary - to more than $800,000 by mid-2014.
Ten pay rises since 2011 have brought secretary salaries to where they are today.
If the tribunal decides on a 2 per cent pay rise in 2026, without changing the current structure, four more secretaries will rise above the $1 million mark.
This will include the heads of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Health and Infrastructure.
Two per cent is the lowest pay rise the tribunal has approved since 2011, and public service employees will receive a 3.4 per cent hike in 2026.
While this appears likely given the tribunal's past decisions, it could also decide to hold off.
The tribunal must look at annual wage decisions and also weighs up APS wage increases, consumer price index and wage price index.
In 2020, as the Australian economy faced the COVID-19 pandemic and public sector wages were frozen, the tribunal announced it would not offer a pay rise.
"The Tribunal's primary focus is to provide competitive and equitable remuneration that is appropriate to the responsibilities and experience required of the roles, and that is sufficient to attract and retain people of calibre," it said at the time.
"However, this does not happen in a vacuum. The context of the broader jobs market and the economy are also considered."
The body can also dock a secretary's pay, based on Machinery of Government changes that shrink the scope of their responsibilities, but incumbents are protected from having pay go backwards.
Health secretary Blair Comley has meanwhile received an extra promotion, taking his salary from $910,270 to $983,910, after his department gained oversight of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
While Labor maintains that secretaries' pay is an independent decision, there is room for political intervention.
The tribunal noted in 2020 that it had received a request from then finance minister Mathias Cormann and assistant public service minister Greg Hunt to freeze pay for APS bosses, and opted to comply.
The steady increase has caused concern among some politicians, who earn considerably less than their senior bureacrats.
"They earn more than me," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said when asked about the issue earlier in the year, in reference to his salary of about $622,000.
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie last year called on Parliament to radically reduce the earnings of senior public servants, capping remuneration at about $430,000 unless otherwise approved by the relevant ministers.
"Departmental secretaries have important responsibilities, and their pay should be appropriate to ensure those positions are competitively filled by capable people," Senator Lambie said at the time.
"But the present levels of pay at the top of the bureaucratic and academic trees don't pass the pub test."
Meanwhile, independent senator David Pocock wants to see the tribunal consider performance in its decisions. The current system is based on the size of departments and the scope and complexity of the portfolio.
"Senior public servants in Australia are paid well above those in most comparable OECD countries, including in Europe, the UK and US," Senator Pocock said.
"We want to be able to attract the best and brightest to lead our public service, but at the same time, we need to ensure remuneration is tied to performance and that is lacking in our current system.
"I would like to see reform in this space as we continue to value and build the capacity of the APS more broadly into the future."
Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher told The Canberra Times in March that while she was sympathetic to the public's concerns, "it's hard to unwind a system that's been put in place over many years".
"I get people's concerns with that, I do," Senator Gallagher said at the time.
"I understand it when they see it in isolation, or relate it back to their own experience of work, but I also know how hard [secretaries work].
"These are serious jobs, and we need the best and brightest, and we need to retain them in the public service."
Already some of the world's best-paid senior public servants, Australia's departmental secretaries are on the brink of earning million-dollar pay packets in the coming years.
Successive pay rises have pushed Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Steven Kennedy and Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson past the $1 million mark for the 2025-26 financial year, and their colleagues are not far behind.
Dr Kennedy, who is the country's most senior bureaucrat, earns nearly triple the highest rate for United States departmental secretaries, set at $250,600 USD as of January, or about $386,237 AUD.
The march towards million-dollar pay began just over a decade ago, when new legislation returned the power to set senior public service salaries to the Remuneration Tribunal.
While Dr Kennedy plays a role in deciding pay for some of his colleagues, the greatest influence is exerted by the tribunal.
It recommends secretaries be placed in either an upper or lower level of remuneration, and also considers annual pay rises. The figures it decides on include salary, allowances, benefits and superannuation.
In 2011, the tribunal had been concerned for some time that secretary salaries were well below what they should be, and had not kept pace with the rising earnings of their subordinates in the Senior Executive Service.
It recommended an overhaul of the structure used to determine pay for APS bosses, rebasing the uppermost point - the salary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary - to more than $800,000 by mid-2014.
Ten pay rises since 2011 have brought secretary salaries to where they are today.
If the tribunal decides on a 2 per cent pay rise in 2026, without changing the current structure, four more secretaries will rise above the $1 million mark.
This will include the heads of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Health and Infrastructure.
Two per cent is the lowest pay rise the tribunal has approved since 2011, and public service employees will receive a 3.4 per cent hike in 2026.
While this appears likely given the tribunal's past decisions, it could also decide to hold off.
The tribunal must look at annual wage decisions and also weighs up APS wage increases, consumer price index and wage price index.
In 2020, as the Australian economy faced the COVID-19 pandemic and public sector wages were frozen, the tribunal announced it would not offer a pay rise.
"The Tribunal's primary focus is to provide competitive and equitable remuneration that is appropriate to the responsibilities and experience required of the roles, and that is sufficient to attract and retain people of calibre," it said at the time.
"However, this does not happen in a vacuum. The context of the broader jobs market and the economy are also considered."
The body can also dock a secretary's pay, based on Machinery of Government changes that shrink the scope of their responsibilities, but incumbents are protected from having pay go backwards.
Health secretary Blair Comley has meanwhile received an extra promotion, taking his salary from $910,270 to $983,910, after his department gained oversight of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
While Labor maintains that secretaries' pay is an independent decision, there is room for political intervention.
The tribunal noted in 2020 that it had received a request from then finance minister Mathias Cormann and assistant public service minister Greg Hunt to freeze pay for APS bosses, and opted to comply.
The steady increase has caused concern among some politicians, who earn considerably less than their senior bureacrats.
"They earn more than me," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said when asked about the issue earlier in the year, in reference to his salary of about $622,000.
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie last year called on Parliament to radically reduce the earnings of senior public servants, capping remuneration at about $430,000 unless otherwise approved by the relevant ministers.
"Departmental secretaries have important responsibilities, and their pay should be appropriate to ensure those positions are competitively filled by capable people," Senator Lambie said at the time.
"But the present levels of pay at the top of the bureaucratic and academic trees don't pass the pub test."
Meanwhile, independent senator David Pocock wants to see the tribunal consider performance in its decisions. The current system is based on the size of departments and the scope and complexity of the portfolio.
"Senior public servants in Australia are paid well above those in most comparable OECD countries, including in Europe, the UK and US," Senator Pocock said.
"We want to be able to attract the best and brightest to lead our public service, but at the same time, we need to ensure remuneration is tied to performance and that is lacking in our current system.
"I would like to see reform in this space as we continue to value and build the capacity of the APS more broadly into the future."
Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher told The Canberra Times in March that while she was sympathetic to the public's concerns, "it's hard to unwind a system that's been put in place over many years".
"I get people's concerns with that, I do," Senator Gallagher said at the time.
"I understand it when they see it in isolation, or relate it back to their own experience of work, but I also know how hard [secretaries work].
"These are serious jobs, and we need the best and brightest, and we need to retain them in the public service."
Already some of the world's best-paid senior public servants, Australia's departmental secretaries are on the brink of earning million-dollar pay packets in the coming years.
Successive pay rises have pushed Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Steven Kennedy and Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson past the $1 million mark for the 2025-26 financial year, and their colleagues are not far behind.
Dr Kennedy, who is the country's most senior bureaucrat, earns nearly triple the highest rate for United States departmental secretaries, set at $250,600 USD as of January, or about $386,237 AUD.
The march towards million-dollar pay began just over a decade ago, when new legislation returned the power to set senior public service salaries to the Remuneration Tribunal.
While Dr Kennedy plays a role in deciding pay for some of his colleagues, the greatest influence is exerted by the tribunal.
It recommends secretaries be placed in either an upper or lower level of remuneration, and also considers annual pay rises. The figures it decides on include salary, allowances, benefits and superannuation.
In 2011, the tribunal had been concerned for some time that secretary salaries were well below what they should be, and had not kept pace with the rising earnings of their subordinates in the Senior Executive Service.
It recommended an overhaul of the structure used to determine pay for APS bosses, rebasing the uppermost point - the salary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary - to more than $800,000 by mid-2014.
Ten pay rises since 2011 have brought secretary salaries to where they are today.
If the tribunal decides on a 2 per cent pay rise in 2026, without changing the current structure, four more secretaries will rise above the $1 million mark.
This will include the heads of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Health and Infrastructure.
Two per cent is the lowest pay rise the tribunal has approved since 2011, and public service employees will receive a 3.4 per cent hike in 2026.
While this appears likely given the tribunal's past decisions, it could also decide to hold off.
The tribunal must look at annual wage decisions and also weighs up APS wage increases, consumer price index and wage price index.
In 2020, as the Australian economy faced the COVID-19 pandemic and public sector wages were frozen, the tribunal announced it would not offer a pay rise.
"The Tribunal's primary focus is to provide competitive and equitable remuneration that is appropriate to the responsibilities and experience required of the roles, and that is sufficient to attract and retain people of calibre," it said at the time.
"However, this does not happen in a vacuum. The context of the broader jobs market and the economy are also considered."
The body can also dock a secretary's pay, based on Machinery of Government changes that shrink the scope of their responsibilities, but incumbents are protected from having pay go backwards.
Health secretary Blair Comley has meanwhile received an extra promotion, taking his salary from $910,270 to $983,910, after his department gained oversight of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
While Labor maintains that secretaries' pay is an independent decision, there is room for political intervention.
The tribunal noted in 2020 that it had received a request from then finance minister Mathias Cormann and assistant public service minister Greg Hunt to freeze pay for APS bosses, and opted to comply.
The steady increase has caused concern among some politicians, who earn considerably less than their senior bureacrats.
"They earn more than me," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said when asked about the issue earlier in the year, in reference to his salary of about $622,000.
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie last year called on Parliament to radically reduce the earnings of senior public servants, capping remuneration at about $430,000 unless otherwise approved by the relevant ministers.
"Departmental secretaries have important responsibilities, and their pay should be appropriate to ensure those positions are competitively filled by capable people," Senator Lambie said at the time.
"But the present levels of pay at the top of the bureaucratic and academic trees don't pass the pub test."
Meanwhile, independent senator David Pocock wants to see the tribunal consider performance in its decisions. The current system is based on the size of departments and the scope and complexity of the portfolio.
"Senior public servants in Australia are paid well above those in most comparable OECD countries, including in Europe, the UK and US," Senator Pocock said.
"We want to be able to attract the best and brightest to lead our public service, but at the same time, we need to ensure remuneration is tied to performance and that is lacking in our current system.
"I would like to see reform in this space as we continue to value and build the capacity of the APS more broadly into the future."
Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher told The Canberra Times in March that while she was sympathetic to the public's concerns, "it's hard to unwind a system that's been put in place over many years".
"I get people's concerns with that, I do," Senator Gallagher said at the time.
"I understand it when they see it in isolation, or relate it back to their own experience of work, but I also know how hard [secretaries work].
"These are serious jobs, and we need the best and brightest, and we need to retain them in the public service."
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Cadillac will not force buyers to go without a couple of increasingly popular features in Australia. Parent company General Motors sparked the ire of many consumers when it announced it wouldn't offer its latest generation of electric vehicles (EVs) with smartphone mirroring apps Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It pivoted away from these features despite their growing popularity and ubiquity in the new-car market – a 2024 McKinsey survey, for example, showed 30 per cent of global EV buyers consider the absence of these features a deal-breaker. However, this decision doesn't affect Australian buyers, who'll still have access to these while also gaining a suite of connected services. "All Cadillac Lyriq, Lyriq-V, Vistiq and Optiq vehicles coming to Australia and New Zealand will offer Cadillac Connected Services as well as wireless smartphone projection, which is currently available in Lyriq models (i.e. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto)," said a GM spokesperson. CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. Cadillac announced last month it was rolling out Cadillac Connected Services in Australia, starting with what's currently its only model – the large Lyriq electric SUV – late in 2025. Buyers will get eight years of complimentary access. Customers who take delivery of a Lyriq prior to the launch of Cadillac Connected Services will be able to get them courtesy of a complimentary upgrade at a Cadillac Service location. This suite of technology includes mobile app connectivity, over-the-air update capability, and what the brand refers to as Connected Infotainment – essentially Cadillac-speak for the presence of Google built-in, featuring embedded Google apps such as Google Maps and Google Assistant, with more available to download via the Google Play Store. This also features smart routing. Google Maps will tell you what your battery percentage will be at the end of your journey, and suggest charging stops if necessary along your route. The Cadillac smartphone app will allow you to remotely check the vehicle's status including its location and charge level, and control the locks, alarm, lights, windows and air-conditioning. This kind of app-based connectivity has become extremely common in recent years in Australia after previously being the exclusive domain of brands like Tesla. In many cases, brands have finally rolled it out in Australia after having had it in markets like the US for several years already – Hyundai and Toyota being examples of this. One key piece of technology GM offers in North America but hasn't announced plans to roll out here is Super Cruise. This allows hands-free driving across over a million kilometres of roads on the continent. GM has said Australian legislation doesn't support the feature's use locally, and the cost to map a country is in the millions of dollars. Cadillac commenced local deliveries of the Lyriq earlier this year, and next year it'll be joined by the smaller Optiq and larger, three-row Vistiq crossover SUVs, plus a hot version called the Lyriq-V. It's continuing with its plans to be an electric-only brand in Australia, and has previously spoken of selling models in "exclusive volumes". It has just one Australian retail location for now, in Sydney, with another to open in Brisbane this year. MORE: Everything Cadillac Content originally sourced from: Cadillac will not force buyers to go without a couple of increasingly popular features in Australia. Parent company General Motors sparked the ire of many consumers when it announced it wouldn't offer its latest generation of electric vehicles (EVs) with smartphone mirroring apps Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It pivoted away from these features despite their growing popularity and ubiquity in the new-car market – a 2024 McKinsey survey, for example, showed 30 per cent of global EV buyers consider the absence of these features a deal-breaker. However, this decision doesn't affect Australian buyers, who'll still have access to these while also gaining a suite of connected services. "All Cadillac Lyriq, Lyriq-V, Vistiq and Optiq vehicles coming to Australia and New Zealand will offer Cadillac Connected Services as well as wireless smartphone projection, which is currently available in Lyriq models (i.e. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto)," said a GM spokesperson. CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. Cadillac announced last month it was rolling out Cadillac Connected Services in Australia, starting with what's currently its only model – the large Lyriq electric SUV – late in 2025. Buyers will get eight years of complimentary access. Customers who take delivery of a Lyriq prior to the launch of Cadillac Connected Services will be able to get them courtesy of a complimentary upgrade at a Cadillac Service location. This suite of technology includes mobile app connectivity, over-the-air update capability, and what the brand refers to as Connected Infotainment – essentially Cadillac-speak for the presence of Google built-in, featuring embedded Google apps such as Google Maps and Google Assistant, with more available to download via the Google Play Store. This also features smart routing. Google Maps will tell you what your battery percentage will be at the end of your journey, and suggest charging stops if necessary along your route. The Cadillac smartphone app will allow you to remotely check the vehicle's status including its location and charge level, and control the locks, alarm, lights, windows and air-conditioning. This kind of app-based connectivity has become extremely common in recent years in Australia after previously being the exclusive domain of brands like Tesla. In many cases, brands have finally rolled it out in Australia after having had it in markets like the US for several years already – Hyundai and Toyota being examples of this. One key piece of technology GM offers in North America but hasn't announced plans to roll out here is Super Cruise. This allows hands-free driving across over a million kilometres of roads on the continent. GM has said Australian legislation doesn't support the feature's use locally, and the cost to map a country is in the millions of dollars. Cadillac commenced local deliveries of the Lyriq earlier this year, and next year it'll be joined by the smaller Optiq and larger, three-row Vistiq crossover SUVs, plus a hot version called the Lyriq-V. It's continuing with its plans to be an electric-only brand in Australia, and has previously spoken of selling models in "exclusive volumes". It has just one Australian retail location for now, in Sydney, with another to open in Brisbane this year. MORE: Everything Cadillac Content originally sourced from: Cadillac will not force buyers to go without a couple of increasingly popular features in Australia. Parent company General Motors sparked the ire of many consumers when it announced it wouldn't offer its latest generation of electric vehicles (EVs) with smartphone mirroring apps Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It pivoted away from these features despite their growing popularity and ubiquity in the new-car market – a 2024 McKinsey survey, for example, showed 30 per cent of global EV buyers consider the absence of these features a deal-breaker. However, this decision doesn't affect Australian buyers, who'll still have access to these while also gaining a suite of connected services. "All Cadillac Lyriq, Lyriq-V, Vistiq and Optiq vehicles coming to Australia and New Zealand will offer Cadillac Connected Services as well as wireless smartphone projection, which is currently available in Lyriq models (i.e. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto)," said a GM spokesperson. CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. Cadillac announced last month it was rolling out Cadillac Connected Services in Australia, starting with what's currently its only model – the large Lyriq electric SUV – late in 2025. Buyers will get eight years of complimentary access. Customers who take delivery of a Lyriq prior to the launch of Cadillac Connected Services will be able to get them courtesy of a complimentary upgrade at a Cadillac Service location. This suite of technology includes mobile app connectivity, over-the-air update capability, and what the brand refers to as Connected Infotainment – essentially Cadillac-speak for the presence of Google built-in, featuring embedded Google apps such as Google Maps and Google Assistant, with more available to download via the Google Play Store. This also features smart routing. Google Maps will tell you what your battery percentage will be at the end of your journey, and suggest charging stops if necessary along your route. The Cadillac smartphone app will allow you to remotely check the vehicle's status including its location and charge level, and control the locks, alarm, lights, windows and air-conditioning. This kind of app-based connectivity has become extremely common in recent years in Australia after previously being the exclusive domain of brands like Tesla. In many cases, brands have finally rolled it out in Australia after having had it in markets like the US for several years already – Hyundai and Toyota being examples of this. One key piece of technology GM offers in North America but hasn't announced plans to roll out here is Super Cruise. This allows hands-free driving across over a million kilometres of roads on the continent. GM has said Australian legislation doesn't support the feature's use locally, and the cost to map a country is in the millions of dollars. Cadillac commenced local deliveries of the Lyriq earlier this year, and next year it'll be joined by the smaller Optiq and larger, three-row Vistiq crossover SUVs, plus a hot version called the Lyriq-V. It's continuing with its plans to be an electric-only brand in Australia, and has previously spoken of selling models in "exclusive volumes". It has just one Australian retail location for now, in Sydney, with another to open in Brisbane this year. MORE: Everything Cadillac Content originally sourced from: Cadillac will not force buyers to go without a couple of increasingly popular features in Australia. Parent company General Motors sparked the ire of many consumers when it announced it wouldn't offer its latest generation of electric vehicles (EVs) with smartphone mirroring apps Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It pivoted away from these features despite their growing popularity and ubiquity in the new-car market – a 2024 McKinsey survey, for example, showed 30 per cent of global EV buyers consider the absence of these features a deal-breaker. However, this decision doesn't affect Australian buyers, who'll still have access to these while also gaining a suite of connected services. "All Cadillac Lyriq, Lyriq-V, Vistiq and Optiq vehicles coming to Australia and New Zealand will offer Cadillac Connected Services as well as wireless smartphone projection, which is currently available in Lyriq models (i.e. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto)," said a GM spokesperson. CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. Cadillac announced last month it was rolling out Cadillac Connected Services in Australia, starting with what's currently its only model – the large Lyriq electric SUV – late in 2025. Buyers will get eight years of complimentary access. Customers who take delivery of a Lyriq prior to the launch of Cadillac Connected Services will be able to get them courtesy of a complimentary upgrade at a Cadillac Service location. This suite of technology includes mobile app connectivity, over-the-air update capability, and what the brand refers to as Connected Infotainment – essentially Cadillac-speak for the presence of Google built-in, featuring embedded Google apps such as Google Maps and Google Assistant, with more available to download via the Google Play Store. This also features smart routing. Google Maps will tell you what your battery percentage will be at the end of your journey, and suggest charging stops if necessary along your route. The Cadillac smartphone app will allow you to remotely check the vehicle's status including its location and charge level, and control the locks, alarm, lights, windows and air-conditioning. This kind of app-based connectivity has become extremely common in recent years in Australia after previously being the exclusive domain of brands like Tesla. In many cases, brands have finally rolled it out in Australia after having had it in markets like the US for several years already – Hyundai and Toyota being examples of this. One key piece of technology GM offers in North America but hasn't announced plans to roll out here is Super Cruise. This allows hands-free driving across over a million kilometres of roads on the continent. GM has said Australian legislation doesn't support the feature's use locally, and the cost to map a country is in the millions of dollars. Cadillac commenced local deliveries of the Lyriq earlier this year, and next year it'll be joined by the smaller Optiq and larger, three-row Vistiq crossover SUVs, plus a hot version called the Lyriq-V. It's continuing with its plans to be an electric-only brand in Australia, and has previously spoken of selling models in "exclusive volumes". It has just one Australian retail location for now, in Sydney, with another to open in Brisbane this year. MORE: Everything Cadillac Content originally sourced from:
