NBN bosses pocket million-dollar paychecks amid pandemic
Labor has slammed the top executives of the government-owned NBN for being “out of touch” after they each took home a pay packet of more than $1m, while chief executive Stephen Rue also pocketed a cool $1.2m bonus.
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The man in charge of the National Broadband Network has received a $1.2m bonus, and the five executives who served all of the last financial year on his leadership team will each take home a pay packet of more than $1m.
The millionaire executives of the government-owned business are under fire from Labor, which has accused them of being “out of touch” and changing their targets so they are met.
While public servants have had their pay frozen during the pandemic, NBN Co chief executive Stephen Rue earned $3.1m overall in 2020-21, a massive $540,000 pay rise.
Chief customer officer for business, Paul Tyler, was paid $1.3m, including $435,104 in incentives, before he left in a restructure to cut 800 jobs.
A total of $11.4m was paid to NBN Co executives in the last financial year, including $2.9m in bonuses, up from $2.1m the year before. Ziggy Switkowski, NBN Co’s chair and head of its remuneration committee, said it was a “standout year”, as the completion of the initial network build meant 99 per cent of households and businesses could connect, while “positive satisfaction” trends among customers were recorded.
The board decided not to increase the base pay of NBN Co staff, he said in the annual report, but it paid out 95 per cent of the maximum incentives available. “This calculation is not indifferent to the environment in which the (short-term incentive) judgment is made,” Dr Switkowski said.
“The interests of our shareholder, the commonwealth, are best served when NBN Co leaders are fairly remunerated and outstanding performance is appropriately rewarded.”
He said the board was aware other organisations had eliminated or reduced bonuses because of the pandemic. But Dr Switkowski said the NBN had “stood up to the task” as Australians were forced to work from home, and COVID-19 did not have a “material” impact on NBN Co’s commercial performance.
“The board has concluded that no variation is called for in our annual remuneration approach,” he said.
Opposition communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland hit out at the generous incentives, arguing NBN Co had routinely shifted key corporate forecasts. “Cost blowouts, fake targets and technology backflips — what exactly are taxpayers rewarding other than Liberal spin and incompetence?” she said.
NBN Co executives are expected to appear at a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday night.
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