25th Feb 2021, 12:18 PM – Senate Motions - NBN Co - Excessive spending and waste

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by ACT Senator Katy Gallagher (Labor), which means it passed. Motions like these don't make any legal changes on their own, but they are politically influential as they represent the will of the Senate.

Motion text

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.