Telstra CEO gets $700,000 pay rise to $6.8m despite Australia-wide outage

August 13, 2026 • Business

Summary

Telstra’s CEO, Vicki Brady, received a $700,000 pay raise to $6.8 million for the year, even after her bonus was cut 20% due to a major nationwide network outage. The outage affected nearly half of calls and data sessions, led to compensation payments, and drew political criticism. Telstra’s profits increased to $2.4 billion despite the disruption.

Key Facts

CEO Vicki Brady’s total pay was $6.8 million for the year ending June, after a 20% bonus cut due to the outage.
The network outage in July affected almost half of all Telstra calls and data sessions nationwide.
The outage was caused by a missed software update on a key time-keeping system.
Over 30,000 customers requested compensation; nearly $1 million has been paid out so far.
Telstra’s board also cut bonuses for other senior executives, reducing their combined pay by $1.3 million.
Telstra’s profit rose to $2.4 billion, up from $2.3 billion the previous year, and it paid shareholders a 21-cent dividend per share.
The company reduced its workforce by 1,219 employees to a total of 29,334.
Despite price increases on mobile plans, Telstra sold 1 million more mobile plans, reaching 26 million services in total.
Telstra’s share price fell slightly after the earnings report, lowering its market value by $1.4 billion to $54.3 billion.