Couriers Mail today 26/08/24
https://todayspaper.couriermail.com.au/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubn... pay walled.
Quote:YOU PAY, THEY GET A RAISE
EXCLUSIVE - JOHN ROLFE
Mark Collette
EnergyAustralia CEO since 2021
2023-24 pay: $2.8m
Increase: $800,000 or 45% *
1.6m for electricity
Price rise in 2023-24:20% in Qld and NSW, 28% in Victoria, 22% in SA.
$117m, up $230m on $113m loss in 2023
* Pay increase is for calendar 2023 because of how the company reports financials.
Frank Calabria
Origin Energy CEO since 2016
2023-24 pay:$5.6m
Increase:$700,000 or 10%
2.7m for electricity
Price rise in 2023-24: 20% in Qld and NSW, 28% in Victoria, 22% in SA
58% to $1.18bn
While their customers fret about how to pay their electricity bills, Australia’s big three power companies have increased pay to their fat-cat
bosses by more than $1m in the past 12 months – to over $10m.
New financial statements lodged in Australia and Hong Kong reveal Origin,
EnergyAustralia and AGL forked out $5.6m, $2.8m and $2.3m respectively
to their top executives in the year to the end of June.
Origin’s chief executive Frank Calabria, who lives in a Mosman mansion in Sydney worth $11m, enjoyed a $700,000 surge in take-home earnings, its annual report shows, as the company delivered a near 60 per cent profit jump to $1.18bn on soaring electricity margins.
EnergyAustralia’s Mark Collette got a bump of about $800,000 last calendar year, according to the filings of its ultimate owner, China Light
and Power Holdings.
Mr Collette’s pay has been lifted by a further 10 per in the first half of
calendar 2024, according to China Light and Power’s latest earnings
report, in which it called out EnergyAustralia as a star performer.
The size of the increase in pay to AGL chief Damien Nicks cannot be calculated because he was not with the business for all of the 2023
financial year.
What is known is that on top of his $2.3m pay packet in 2023-24, he was
awarded more than $700,000 in shares to be allocated next month.
AGL’s annual net profit increased 189 per cent to $812m last financial year
and it doubled its dividend to shareholders, the largest being activist billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes.
At the same time as these power giants were increasing their executives’
pay, benchmark power prices in large parts of NSW, Victoria, Queensland
and South Australia rose by more than 20 per cent under decisions taken
by market regulators.
Consumer advocates said the profit and pay outcomes showed the system
was stacked against small customers.
David Richardson, senior research fellow at left-leaning think tank The
Australia Institute, said earnings from household and small businesses were “huge”.
“The price to consumers is a hell of a lot more than the price to large
businesses,” he said.
“What they publish about the additional costs for
consumer customers in no way explains that full difference.”
Energy Consumers Australia CEO Brendan French noted there had been a
40 per cent increase in the number of households unable to pay their
accounts.
“
At a time when some of the bigger energy retailers are posting significant
profits, we are seeing consumers finding it increasingly hard to meet high
energy bills,” Dr French said.
“I don’t think you have to be Einstein to see
there’s an imbalance between the consumer and the energy system.”
An Origin spokeswoman said Mr Calabria’s pay reflected “strong operational and financial performance”.
“A profitable Origin is important, as it puts us in a stronger position to invest in the energy transition,” she said.
An AGL spokesman said it was increasing investment in the energy transition and in bill relief.
Energy Australia declined to comment.
Damian Nicks
AGL CEO since 2022
2023-24 pay: $2.3m
Increase:Can’t be calculated because he wasn’t with AGL the full prior year
Customers: 2.4m for electricity
Price rise in 2023-24: 20% in Qld and NSW, 28% in Victoria, 22% in SA
Profit jump: 189% to $812m
The CEOs Boys Club in another sector fiddles whist consumers burn under increased electricity costs.
And as for Energy Australia being owned by China Light & Power Holdings what more can you say?
Renewables & cheaper reliable power?
The Albanese Govt announced last week it was throwing its weight behind the biggest renewable project in the southern h/sphere . Located between Katherine & Elliott in the NT which will require the clear felling of 30,000 acres to establish it.
Quote:Albanese Government gives environment approvals to Australia's biggest renewable energy project ever. In a massive step towards making Australia a renewable energy superpower, the Albanese Government has approved a huge new industrial solar power project in the Northern Territory.
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