Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We are in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis in this country. We hear day after day after day of the struggles of everyday people to afford rent, to afford the hike in their mortgage repayments, to put food on the table and to buy uniforms for their kids at the beginning of the year.

Yet here in Canberra the government is overseeing two of the government's biggest government owned corporations, Australia Post and NBN Co, whose executives, this year alone, have each banked over half a million dollars in bonuses. The CEO of Australia Post has a $2 million salary and over half a million dollars in bonuses. We know that the CEO of NBN Co, Stephen Rue, was paid nearly $700,000 in bonuses, which pushed his salary up to nearly $3 million. I ask the everyday Australians out there: 'How is your NBN going? Good? Is it worth nearly $3 million for the guy who was running the gig?' I don't think so.

While everyday people are struggling, these fat cat executives on the public payroll in government owned corporations are raking it in. We have seen the polite letters written by the shareholder ministers to both Australia Post and NBN Co, but I say this: put the pen down and take some actual action. We actually need caps on these bonuses and salaries and to start installing public expectations of the wages, salaries and bonuses— (Time expired)