Coalition urges transparency on NBN Co salaries

James Riley
Friday, 07 August 2009 12:34

Business IT - Technology

Government must publish salary and remuneration details for senior executives and board members of the NBN Company if the public is to have faith in the transparency of the $43 billion broadband project, Opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin said.

Following the controversy created by former Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo’s total salary package – and public outrage at executive salaries that after the market meltdown last year – Senator Minchin said Government was obliged to reveal the salary packages of top management of the publicly-funded NBN Co.

“Considering Australian taxpayers will be the major stake-holder in the NBN company, I think Senator Conroy is obliged to outline details regarding remuneration arrangements for the board members and CEO, particularly after all Mr Rudd’s tough talk about reining in executive salaries,” Senator Minchin said.

A spokesman for Senator Conroy said details of the NBN Co’s chairman and chief executive Michael Quigley’s remuneration package would be made public in due course and in line with existing regulatory requirements for incorporated companies.

The salary package details would be released through the Minister’s office, and would likely include the NBN Co’s senior management team of Quigley’s direct reports.

Board remunerations for the NBN Co directors would also be released into the public domain, albeit through the Commonwealth’s Remuneration Tribunal – which sets pay for parliamentarians, the judiciary and appointees to agency boards, among other things.

Senator Minchin, the leader of the Opposition in the Senate, has also queried what role the NBN board would have to perform as it waited for the results of the implementation study being carried out by McKinsey-KPMG consultants.

“The Government has given (McKinsey-KPMG) an enormous and perhaps impossible task, not to simply assess proposals, but to some how design a national network from scratch and develop an implementation plan for its financing and construction,” Senator Minchin said.

“Considering they have virtually nothing to work with, I suspect the only way they could tackle this would be to model a whole range of different scenarios, particularly if firm agreements cannot be reached with existing infrastructure providers over access or vend in of assets.”

“I am also curious as to the roles the board members will play in the interim, considering the implementation study will need to run its course before it even knows it will have a viable company to administer,” he said.