Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senators Pratt, Kitching and Hanson, I move general business notice of motion No. 1040:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

  (i) between July 2020 and December 2020, NBN Co paid out $78 million in corporate bonuses with taxpayer money,

  (ii) the 2018 NBN corporate plan set a revenue target of $4.9 billion for financial year 2020; NBN Co achieved $3.8 billion,

  (iii) the 2018 NBN corporate plan set an activations target of 8.1 million by financial year 2020; NBN Co achieved 7.3 million,

  (iv) the 2018 NBN corporate plan forecast the multi-technology NBN would cost $49 billion; the forecast cost is now $57 billion,

  (v) the Prime Minister effectively sacked Ms Holgate on the floor of Parliament for spending $20,000 on Cartier watches in 2018, but had no issues with NBN Co paying out $78 million in corporate bonuses during a recession, and

  (vi) NBN Co recently refused to answer 15 questions on notice from the Senate about their finances, despite having published this information previously;

(b) considers the $78 million in NBN corporate bonuses during the COVID-19 recession to be excessive, unreasonable and lacking in justification;

(c) affirms its commitment to ensuring there is appropriate transparency over how taxpayer money is spent on the NBN; and

(d) calls on the Minister for Communications and NBN Chairman to reign in excessive spending and waste at NBN Co.