MICHELLE ROWLAND MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS
MEMBER FOR GREENWAY

SENATOR KIMBERLEY KITCHING
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES AND THE NDIS
DEPUTY MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS IN THE SENATE
SENATOR FOR VICTORIA


ONLY ONE IN TEN FRONT-LINE NBN WORKERS RECEIVED A BONUS
 

If making things up about the NBN and being caught out was an Olympic sport, Minister Fletcher would be deserving of a gold medal.

During a press conference on 18 February the Minister claimed that “a substantial proportion of those [$78 million in NBN] bonuses were paid to front-line staff”.

This wasn’t simply an exaggeration.

It was the latest instalment of sheer rubbish by a shifty Minister who makes it up as he goes.

Data supplied by NBNCo shows only 179 out of 1,761 NBN employees earning under $100,000 received a bonus in financial year 2020. 

This means a staggering 9 in 10 NBN employees earning less than $100,000 received no bonus at all.

Furthermore, despite comprising nearly 30 per cent of total employees, this cohort of 1,761 staff received less than 2 per cent of the $78 million bonus pool.

NBNCo also perversely cut the payments rates of small business sub-contractors by up to 30 per cent earlier this year.

In contrast, the NBNCo Board awarded 775 company executives earning over $200,000 an average taxpayer-funded bonus of $50,000 each during the recession. 

This happened despite NBNCo hiding $1.5 billion in cost blowouts, concealing a larger than expected $7.4 billion cash flow loss, and setting themselves misleading revenue targets.

Something is terribly wrong when the Board of a publicly owned enterprise operates with such contempt for taxpayers and community expectations.

Background

Schedule A of the NBNCo and CEPU Technical Employees Agreement publishes salaries of call centre staff, network engineers and advanced telecommunications technicians as ranging from $61,036 to $87,891.

A Senate Question On Notice (question 13) states 179 employees earning less than $100,000 in FY2020 received a bonus. The NBNCo CEO said at a subsequent Senate hearing that NBN actually employed 1,761 people in that salary band in FY2020.

Senator KITCHING: How are we going on the band zero to $100,000?

Mr Rue: I have the answer for you. I don't have the zero to $50,000 and the $50,000 to $100,000.

Senator KITCHING: That's okay. I'll take the zero to $100,000.

Mr Rue: I've been advised for 30 June 2019 there were 1,855 employees that had a base salary of less than or equal to $100,000 and for 30 June 2020 that number was 1,761. 

THURSDAY, 15 JULY 2021