Optus executive Gladys Berejiklian dials out of telco’s latest fail
Optus executive and former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian was notably out of work-mode on Saturday despite the crisis enveloping the besieged telco, stepping out in Sydney for a casual stroll with her partner.
Optus executive and former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian kept her head down as she left her North Sydney home on Saturday, less than 24 hours after the telco announced three people had died due to a system outage.
Ms Berejiklian kept quiet when she was asked whether she had a message for the victims and appeared stoney-faced beneath her hat and glasses as she went for her usual walk with her partner, high-profile lawyer Arthur Moses.
The former premier joined Optus in February 2022 after the telco created a special role for her.
According to her biography on the Optus website, Ms Berejiklian was appointed to the role of Optus Chief Customer Officer, Enterprise and Business in February 2022.
“She has a proven track record of executing and delivering major complex projects and building strong, trusted relationships with the business community,” it says.
“In 2003, Gladys was elected to the New South Wales Parliament, and from 2011 she served in senior leadership roles, including Minister for Transport, Treasurer and the 45th Premier of New South Wales.
“Before this, Gladys was an executive at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
“She has a Bachelor of Arts and a graduate diploma in international studies from the University of Sydney and a Master of Commerce from the University of New South Wales”.
Ms Berejiklian is one of nine executives at the company and has been part of the leadership team during its two major outages this week and back in November 2023.Ms Berejiklian was notably out of work-mode despite the crisis enveloping the company, having stepped out for a stroll in her casual clothes and joggers.
She also would not answer questions about whether she was part of the decision to not inform state governments about the fatal outage before it was announced at a press conference at 5.30pm on Friday, taking premiers by surprise.
OPTUS HIGH EARNERS
By Giuseppe Tauriello
Optus has some of the highest paid executives in Australia with the top bosses earning a combined $18.9 million last financial year after they handed themselves a pay rise of more than 20 per cent, all while their customers battle blackouts and deadly service failures.
The Singapore-owned telco’s latest annual report filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission reveals the nine members of its executive team and suite of directors made almost $19m in the year to March 2025, up from $15.3m the year before.
The pay boost came despite Optus reporting a net loss of $155m, on total revenues of $8.3 billion. Optus posted a net loss of $480m the year before after millions of customers were affected by a major outage in November 2023 that impacted triple-0 calls.
The latest outage on Thursday is believed to be caused by a similar “technical failure”.
CEO Stephen Rue is rumoured to make upwards of $5m a year based on his predecessors’ earnings, while his fellow executives, including former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, reportedly rake in similar seven-figure salaries.
Rue earned $2.85m in the 12 months to June 2024, his last year as chief executive with former employer NBN Co, making him the highest paid public servant at the time. He took home another $1.4m during his notice period, from the time he resigned in May 2024, to the date of his departure from NBN Co last November, during which he provided “ongoing service to NBN Co … albeit on a restricted basis”.
Optus climbed slightly out of the red despite being fined $12m for the first triple-0 outage. Federal Communications manager Anika Wells flagged on Friday that the telco would be fined an additional $10m for its second, fatal outage.
The telco, which remains the second largest in the country, also agreed to pay $100m to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in June to settle a lawsuit over aggressive sales practices and misconduct.
According to its financial report, Optus signed up an additional 238,000 customers to its mobile base last year and its number of postpaid customers increased by 52,000.
In the latest annual report filed by Optus’s parent company Singtel, Rue told investors:
“For Optus to truly champion the customer, we must ensure we are a company that consistently puts people and the systems, processes and products that support them at the centre of every decision we make.
“We have an extensive programme of work underway to ensure we deliver on our promise to our customers. We will amplify our commitment to being transparent, proactive and accountable to our customers, owning every part of their experience, not just what happens at the frontline.
“Every part of our business, at every level, has a role to play. We are embedding that thinking into how we operate, holding ourselves accountable for the entire customer journey, from network reliability and billing clarity to the way our people show up in the moments that really matter.”
Originally published as Optus executive Gladys Berejiklian dials out of telco’s latest fail
