The Greens say Labor must drastically cut the pay of the national broadband network’s chief executive in exchange for their support on a bill to block any future privatisation of the publicly owned network.
The party’s amendments to Labor’s bill include a salary cap for senior executives, placing a legal obligation on NBN services to remain “affordable and accessible” to consumers, and providing cost-of-living relief for those who can’t afford essential communication services.
The latest NBN Co annual report showed the then-CEO, Stephen Rue, on a remuneration package of $2.85m, including a $645,000 bonus. This is more than four and a half times the prime minister’s $607,471 annual salary. The year before Rue earned $3.03m.
The former Telstra executive Ellie Sweeney took over as NBN Co’s chief executive and managing director in December – the company’s first female leader.
If Sweeney is on a similar package to Rue, the new rule would cut her pay by about $2.5m, as the amendment specifically limits senior executive pay to five times the average Australian’s weekly earnings.
The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics in May 2024 showed average weekly earnings for an adult working full-time was $1,923.40, which would result in a cap of senior executive salaries at $500,084.
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the current CEO’s salary in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis was “obscene”.
“[The amendments] will cap the obscene salaries of the NBN Co CEO and other executives,” she said.
“Something is clearly wrong when the publicly owned NBN Co 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.”
The bill as it stands would make it an objective of the NBN Co Act that the company remains owned by the commonwealth, and removes the legislative conditions that could enable private ownership and control.
Those conditions include a report by the Productivity Commission on the impact of the sale of NBN Co on the future affordability of services, telecommunications competition and commonwealth budgets, as well as a declaration by the finance minister that the conditions are suitable for a sale.
Labor will need the Greens and other crossbench support to pass the bill. The Coalition has refused to back it, calling the legislation a “political wedge”.
Hanson-Young is due to meet with the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, to discuss the amendments this week. If the Greens make a deal, Labor can count on support from the independent Tasmanian senator Tammy Tyrrell.
Tyrrell told Guardian Australia a privatised NBN would “come at the cost of regional areas like Tassie”.
“I’m happy to support something that will safeguard Tasmania’s connection to the rest of the country,” she said. “Any bill that protects regional areas from potential NBN privatisation is worth it.”
The independent Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe is also likely to back the bill, while Jacqui Lambie is yet to formalise her position but has previously opposed the privatisation of commonwealth assets. The independent ACT senator, David Pocock, is also yet to make his position public.
Last month Labor also announced $3bn to fund a national upgrade of the NBN’s fibre-to-the-node infrastructure, which requires the use of copper lines. The government said the upgrades would reach 622,000 premises by 2030.
