NBN boss Ellie Sweeney dodges push to shave millions of dollars off her salary

Ellie Sweeney has sidestepped questions about a push to slash up to $2.5m off her annual salary to make the government-owned telco more affordable and better reflect the cost of living crisis.

NBN Co chief executive Ellie Sweeney has dismissed as speculation questions about a push by the Greens to cap her salary.

NBN Co boss Ellie Sweeney has dodged questions about a push to slash up to $2.5m off her annual salary to make the government-owned telco more affordable and better reflect the cost of living crisis.

The Greens are pushing for NBN Co executive pay to be capped as part of the government’s National Broadband Network Companies Amendment (Commitment to Public Ownership) Bill, saying they hold the balance of power.

Greens communications spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young says executive pay at NBN Co had become excessive, with former CEO Stephen Rue paid $2.85m last year and $3.03m the previous year, making him the nation’s highest-paid public servant.

Ms Hanson-Young said a more appropriate sum would be to cap NBN Co executive pay at five times the annual average weekly earnings of Australians, which totalled $1924.60 last year.

If the Greens’ push is successful this would mean Ms Sweeney would be paid $500,396, undercutting her pay by about $2.5m if she is on the same package as Mr Rue. This would also be $100,000 less than Anthony Albanese’s $607,471 salary as Prime Minister.

Mr Albanese has injected an extra $3bn into the NBN to upgrade homes on the “outdated” copper network and ensure all Australians have access to “fast, reliable and affordable broadband”.

Former NBN Co CEO Stephen Rue was paid about $2.85m last year. Picture: Britta Campion

Asked how the Greens’ push would affect the NBN, particularly its ability to attract and retain talent during a chronic tech worker shortage, Ms Sweeney dismissed the move as “speculation”.

“Thanks for the question again, you won’t be surprised, that’s really a question for the NBN board to answer around exec remuneration,” she said.

“I think we’re, we’re speculating a little bit around whether anything will come of the Greens discussion to date.”

Ms Hanson-Young said: “It’s galling that in the cost of living crisis we have the NBN Co CEO paid more than five times the Prime Minister – the highest-paid public servant in Australia.

“The NBN belongs to all Australians, but too many consumers are being crunched by rising bills and network faults.

“Something is clearly wrong when the publicly owned NBN pays its executives millions of dollars while some Australians are struggling to pay their monthly internet bill or access a reliable service for a network Australians built and own. It doesn’t pass the pub test and it is not value for money for taxpayers.”

Anthony Albanese’s is paid about $607,000 a year. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Greens also want the NBN to be recognised as a universal service in the Act, with the “NBN required to provide broadband in a way that is accessible to all Australians on an equitable basis”.

Ms Hanson-Young also criticised former Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, describing her communication as “lousy” during a Senate inquiry into the telco’s nationwide outage in late 2023.

Ms Sweeney defended NBN price rises, which lifted the telco’s half-year earnings 7 per cent to $2.12bn.

Sarah Hanson-Young says NBN Co executive pay is excessive. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The government has overseen price hikes at NBN, which have made internet plans with slower download speeds more expensive, while faster plans were subject to smaller price increases. This nudged more Australians into higher speed plans as they looked for better value. NBN Co pegs its price rises to annual inflation, which gave it another boost.

The Coalition has criticised the hikes, saying as of last August six million families have been “smashed” by NBN price rises of up to 14 per cent since October 2023.

“We do not take price increases lightly at all. We take the December quarter CPI, and then we work through and publish our pricing for the next three years on the first of May each year. And so that’s really the construct that we’ve got,” Ms Sweeney said.

“We definitely need to balance becoming a commercially sustainable business with also being able to give a broad range of pricing from low to medium to high data users.”

Originally published as NBN boss Ellie Sweeney dodges push to shave millions of dollars off her salary