The head of NBN Co’s salary has jumped to more than $3m despite two cabinet ministers previously urging the government-owned company to reflect on community expectations and show restraint.
NBN Co’s latest annual report confirms its chief executive, Stephen Rue, is now paid five times more than the prime minister Anthony Albanese’s salary of $587,000.
Rue’s short-term bonus, which is linked to NBN Co performance targets, increased by $7,000 to $704,376 last financial year. Along with a salary increase of $90,000, Rue’s salary increased to $3.03m.
All six of NBN Co’s senior executive team were paid more than $1m or were on track to receive that amount over a 12-month period. All received an increase in bonuses, with some jumping by almost $50,000. One executive’s pay increased from $863,535 to $1m.
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the salary increases were a “disgrace” during a cost-of-living crisis and vowed to raise the issue during Senate estimates hearings in Canberra next week.
An NBN Co spokesperson said it operated in a competitive market and the salaries were designed to “support the retention of high-calibre individuals” with specialist expertise in relevant fields.
“Despite the need to compete for these skills and expertise in a highly contested market, NBN Co’s executive remuneration framework varies from those developed by most ASX-listed companies in not having a long-term incentive component,” the spokesperson said.
“Further, NBN Co pays executives total remuneration at the median range when compared with industry peers.”
In its annual report, NBN Co said the bonuses were justified given the organisation had achieved its financial targets and grown the network, with 8.5m premises connected and revenue increasing by 3% year-on-year.
A spokesperson for the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said NBN Co was responsible for its own remuneration decisions.
“Unlike previous years, short-term incentive payments are now limited to a select number of senior staff, which has significantly reduced bonus payments,” the spokesperson said.
“The government has been clear that we expect all government business enterprises and agencies to exercise restraint and ensure bonuses are linked to performance.”
Hanson-Young said it was “a disgrace” that some of the “already exorbitant salaries of executives at the government-owned NBN Co would be increased further”.
“I don’t think anyone would say we are getting value for money from $3m going to the chief executive,” Hanson-Young said. “I will be taking this up at Senate estimates next week.”
When NBN Co salaries were released last year, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, and Rowland wrote to the company to express concern and called for more transparency about bonuses.
Months later, the Labor senator Carol Brown told a Senate estimates hearing that she agreed the “community would expect better”.
“We expect boards and executives shouldn’t be indifferent to community expectations,” Brown told the Senate.
Last year, Gallagher and Rowland noted NBN Co and Australia Post – which is yet to reveal its latest salaries – had not adopted a revised policy for bonuses in government businesses, introduced by the Morrison government.
In its annual report, NBN Co confirmed “the overall structure and approach to remuneration at NBN Co remained unchanged from financial year 2022 and reflects the Australian government performance bonus guidance”.
“At risk remuneration is tied to the achievement of NBN Co’s corporate measures and targets, as well as individual performance objectives, and therefore, actual remuneration received will vary from the target remuneration,” the report said.
According to the finance department, NBN Co manages its own operations “within the constraints of a public equity funding commitment of $29.5bn and a commonwealth loan facility of up to $19.5bn”.
