Telstra announces plans to cut 2,800 jobs
Josh Taylor
Telstra has announced it plans to cut 2,800 jobs from its workforce as part of changes to its enterprise business.
In an announcement to the Australian stock exchange, CEO Vicki Brady said Telstra would consult with employees and the union as part of the changes.
In February, Telstra announced a review of its enterprise business, and has decided to reset the business including a “streamlined product portfolio”, a reduced number of NAS products, a simplified customer sales and service, and a reduction in the Telstra Purple tech services business.
The review remains ongoing and Telstra says it comes amid “challenging market conditions”.
The 2,800 roles will go as part of the enterprise reset, alone with other organisations changes to be finalised by the end of 2024. Brady said:
I appreciate the uncertainty proposed changes like this can create for our people and we will support them through this change with care and transparency. As we propose specific changes, we will talk them through with our teams and union representatives first.
The company also announced postpaid mobile plans will not have an annual CPI-linked price review, with prices adjusted at different times to take into different factors.
Key events
Vicki Brady also spoke on changes to the customer terms, to remove the CPI-linked annual price review:
So what we have announced today is we will not be making pricing changes in July for our consumer post-paid mobile plans. Our pricing review continues, as you would expect, across all of our products, so I can confirm no change in July as part of these changes.
Vicki Brady said that a restructuring charge of between $200m and $250m is expected, “over and above our ordinary redundancy cost”.
So that restructuring charge will cover the redundancy cost involved in impacting up to 2,800 jobs.
‘Costumer service and experience’ to be key priority amid job cuts, Telstra CEO says
Q: How can you lose almost 10% of staff and not impact customers, not impact services? Surely there’s going to be a massive blow to services at some level?
Vicki Brady responded:
We’re very focused as we make these changes. We have invested significantly in our customer service over recent years. That includes on-shoring our call centres for consumer and small business customers, it includes buying back our stores to deliver consistently good experience. None of these changes impact those commitments. As we work through the further changes still to come that I expect to be able to share with our employees in mid-July, customer service and experience will continue to be a key priority in that.
Initial job cuts ‘largely relate to Telstra enterprise business’, CEO says
Vicki Brady said Telstra would begin consulting with people impacted by today’s job cuts, and with unions, and additional support would be made available to employees.
The next period will be challenging, but I am confident we will come out the other side of this a more focused and successful company …
Asked about the size of these job cuts amid the cost-of-living crisis, Brady responded:
[Support measures include] having industry-leading redundant packages. It includes career transition support which will involve ongoing access to learning over a six-month period post leaving Telstra to help move to their next role.
She said the initial jobs to be impacted by cuts “largely relate to [the] Telstra enterprise business”, which services the largest organisations in the country.
Why is Telstra announcing major job cuts?
Telstra CEO Vicki Brady is explaining why the telecomm is planning to cut 2,800 jobs from its workforce.
She said the industry is “fast-changing” with “new and different competitors”, and that customer needs are evolving amid “ongoing inflationary and cost pressures”.
At the same time, the need for better connectivity right across the country only continues to grow … This means we have to make significant ongoing investments in our infrastructure, our technology, and our services to deliver what our customers need today and into the future.
While parts of our business are performing strongly, there are parts that are not delivering to expectation. We also haven’t been on track to deliver our cost-out ambitions. Higher-than-expected inflation and cost pressures, including energy costs, have made meeting this ambition more challenging.
The actions we are announcing today are difficult, but they are necessary. We need to be a more efficient and sustainable business to ensure we can keep investing at the levels required to meet the ever-increasing demand for our connectivity and services for our customers right across the country.
Telstra CEO fronts media following job cuts announcement
Telstra CEO Vicki Brady is speaking to the media from Sydney, after the announcement that it plans to cut 2,800 jobs from its workforce.
She said the “majority” of job cuts would occur by the end of this calendar year.
Consultation with employees will commence today on 377 of those proposed job reductions. We will continue to work through the detail as fast as we can on the remaining proposed changes and I anticipate being able to update our employees around mid-July. As part of our ongoing work to reduce our costs, we will also focus on other cost categories including non-labour-related costs.
Brady said that the job cuts flagged today “do not impact our consumer customer service team and as we progress on the detail work on further changes, we will continue to prioritise consumer service”.
Energy experts weigh in on Aemo report
A number of energy experts have weighed in on Aemo’s latest report, which forecast so-called reliability gaps in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria unless authorities “orchestrated” faster deployment of renewables.
Stephanie Bashir, principal of Nexa Advisory and board member of the Smart Energy Council, said the report states there will be one gigawatt of gap between 2025 and 2028 due to a lack of progress on transmission and renewable projects.
If the situation has really changed for technical, not political, reasons in just four months then taxpayers and consumers must have transparency before they pay the $120-150m a year to keep Eraring open, plus higher electricity bills.
It is time for Aemo and the NSW government to step up and act with urgency … We are yet to hear a commitment from NSW planning minister Paul Scully on the plan to prioritise the outstanding renewable energy projects in the pipeline.
Bashir said the report did not say there would be blackouts, and “the gap identified each year in the sensitivity analysis under worst case scenario is still fairly small and can be filled with big batteries”.
Tim Buckley, a senior energy market analyst and director of Climate Energy Finance, added that the “real reliability gap here is the failure of authorities to accelerate the rollout of renewable energy, transmission and grid connections needed to ensure cheap and reliable energy to consumers statewide”.
Forecast $3bn blowout in Queensland budget amid cost-of-living relief measures
Queensland has forecast a $3bn budget blowout as a result of the cost-of-living relief the state government is delivering, AAP reports.
State treasurer Cameron Dick has announced the June budget will forecast a deficit of around $3bn for 2024-25 financial year. It is set to ease to less than $1bn the following year. Dick said in a statement:
While our government would like to see a surplus in the next two financial years, that will not come at the cost of Queensland families running deficits on their household budgets.
The budget blowout comes amid major state government spending on cost-of-living measures, housing and health. The treasurer says the measures are necessary so dipping into the bottom line is a worthwhile investment:
If we have to borrow to deliver our cost-of-living measures then that is what we will do, but we will do so in a way that keeps inflation as low as possible.
The government managed to deliver a $4.3bn surplus in 2021/22 and a record $13.9bn surplus in 2022/23. That was on the back of coal royalties supporting Queensland’s post-pandemic boom which had been forecast to boost revenue by $9.4bn over five years. This upcoming financial year was also previously forecast to remain in surplus.
Telstra announces plans to cut 2,800 jobs
Josh Taylor
Telstra has announced it plans to cut 2,800 jobs from its workforce as part of changes to its enterprise business.
In an announcement to the Australian stock exchange, CEO Vicki Brady said Telstra would consult with employees and the union as part of the changes.
In February, Telstra announced a review of its enterprise business, and has decided to reset the business including a “streamlined product portfolio”, a reduced number of NAS products, a simplified customer sales and service, and a reduction in the Telstra Purple tech services business.
The review remains ongoing and Telstra says it comes amid “challenging market conditions”.
The 2,800 roles will go as part of the enterprise reset, alone with other organisations changes to be finalised by the end of 2024. Brady said:
I appreciate the uncertainty proposed changes like this can create for our people and we will support them through this change with care and transparency. As we propose specific changes, we will talk them through with our teams and union representatives first.
The company also announced postpaid mobile plans will not have an annual CPI-linked price review, with prices adjusted at different times to take into different factors.
Mediation talks in Reynolds and Higgins defamation case
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, her former political staffer Brittany Higgins and her fiance are expected to attempt again to resolve a pair of high-profile defamation cases, AAP reports.
The former defence minister, who plans to retire from politics at the next election, is suing Higgins and David Sharaz over a series of social media posts she says have damaged her reputation.
The parties in March attended closed-door mediation in the WA supreme court but it’s understood to have failed. They are scheduled to appear in the same court today for another mediation session in a bid to resolve the matters.
Sharaz in April tweeted he would no longer fight the case because he could not afford to pay the legal cost associated with going to trial in July.
Senator Reynolds is suing him over tweets he made and a Facebook comment in 2022. Higgins is accused of posting defamatory material on her Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts.
Bruce Lehrmann has always denied the sexual assault allegation. His trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and Higgins’ mental health was cited as the reason for no retrial.
A federal court judgment in Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson found in April that on the balance of probabilities he did rape Ms Higgins, but the allegation of a political cover-up “was objectively short on facts but long on speculation”.
Woman dies after being hit by van at Pymble
Police are investigating and traffic is significantly impacted after the death of a pedestrian at Pymble on Sydney’s upper north shore this morning.
Officers were called to the Pacific Highway near the Beechworth Road intersection after a woman was struck by a northbound van around 6.20am this morning.
Paramedics rendered first aid but the woman died at the scene. She has not been identified but is believed to be in her 60s.
A crime scene has been established with an investigation underway into the cause. The male driver of the vehicle involved will be undergoing mandatory testing.
Traffic is expected to be affected for some hours, police said, with motorists urged to avoid the area if possible. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
UPDATE: Northbound traffic remains heavy on the Pacific Hwy due to this incident at Pymble with 2 northbound lanes still closed. Beechworth Rd also remains closed. Continue to allow extra travel time in the area. pic.twitter.com/FMI9KU9U3q
— Live Traffic Sydney (@LiveTrafficSyd) May 20, 2024
Politicians debate energy policy after release of Aemo report
Social services minister Amanda Rishworth has responded to a new report from Aemo, which forecast so-called reliability gaps in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria unless authorities “orchestrated” faster deployment of renewables.
Responding to this on the Today Show, Rishworth said there had been “record investment in large scale storage” during the last year:
We’ve seen so many more solar panels on roofs, battery storage, large scale storage, and [we’re coming off the] back of a decade that was wasted … We have a plan, and we’re starting to see the outcomes of the plan. I’d say one thing, though, [that] this report did not say that the answer was to stop investment in renewables and pivot to some nuclear plan that would be … decades away.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said this was “a lot of excuses” from the minister and argued:
There’s no credible plan to net zero by 2050 under Labor, and that’s the problem, [and] we’ve heard gas being now touted as a potential transition energy source. I guess it’s clear that this $300 rebate that’s been announced in the budget, it’s really just going to be a short-lived sugar hit for households.
Rishworth said the government had “always been clear that gas will play a role into the future” and hit back:
But if Bridget suggests that there is some sort of plan by those opposite, somehow that these coal fired power stations were closing under them, there was no plan whatsoever [to] replace them. And now their plan is something in two decades, three decades time that we may or may not actually build …
Migration debate continues on breakfast television
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and social services minister Amanda Rishworth went head-to-head over the ongoing migration debate on breakfast television this morning.
Speaking on the Today Show, McKenzie was asked about Queensland premier Steven Miles’ decision to back the Coalition’s plan to slash migration. She argued that “Labor’s aggressive pursuit of bringing in migrants” was driving up housing and rental prices, echoing comments from Peter Dutton.
Rishworth responded that Labor has “agreed that migration is too high” and pointed to a 35% decrease in international students over the last five months. She said:
These migration settings were the migration settings under your government. Nothing changed previously… Indeed we have a plan, though that is the difference between us and you… You can’t just have rhetoric and not actually back it up with a plan or facts.
We have seen a reduction and the projection is in the next financial year that we will see half the peak of migration … So don’t go misleading people that somehow there was a change in policy. These are your policies that you had in government.
There is little evidence that cutting migration will alleviate the housing crisis or lower house prices. Experts have previously said that the effect of migration on jobs and housing is unclear. You can read more from Josh Nicholas below:
Caitlin Cassidy
Australian students most bullied among comparable English-speaking countries: report
Australian school students are bullied at higher rates than other comparable English speaking countries, a new report has found, with experts warning classroom disorder is leading to poorer school outcomes.
The Australian Council for Educational Research has released its second report interrogating the latest data from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) test.
The report compared the responses of students and principals across 24 of the 81 participating Pisa countries, which were chosen to provide a reflective snapshot of Australia’s performance.
It found Australia’s disciplinary climate was significantly worse than the OECD average and ahead of only New Zealand and Sweden. Exposure to bullying among Australian students was higher than all comparison countries except Latvia.
Continue reading the full story below:
Andrew Wilkie ‘absolutely’ concerned for WikiLeaks founder’s health
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie said he was “absolutely” concerned about Assange’s mental and physical health, noting he couldn’t attend the court hearing yesterday or in February, “because he is genuinely too sick”.
Regardless of what you think of him, surely he has suffered enough and should be … reunited with his family and to return to Australia if that’s his wish. And that’s not just my view, that is the view I’m sure [of] millions of Australians, many millions of people around the world and in fact, it was the view of the Australian parliament in February this year when I was able to secure majority support for a motion in the House of Representatives calling for the matter to be dropped.
Asked if he thinks the US is any closer to dropping or amending the charges, Wilkie told ABC RN he was “cautious” in responding because he has no “insight into where they’re at”.
But if I could describe it as reading the tea leaves, I sense that we are at the end game.
He pointed to comments made by US president Joe Biden last month:
‘A good outcome’: Wilkie responds to latest Assange development
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie just spoke to ABC RN about the latest development in the Julian Assange case. You can read the latest below:
Wilkie has followed the case closely and attended court hearings in London earlier this year. Reacting to the latest development, Wilkie said “this is a good outcome”.
It’s good that Julian Assange is not on an aeroplane to the US as we speak. It’s good that he gets another chance to have the whole matter dropped in court and also gives everyone more time to strike a deal or to finalise the deal …
Of course there’s a downside though, you know. [Assange remains] in Belmarsh prison in London, facing months or maybe years of further court action in the UK, which is just a terrible turn of events. I mean, it should never have come to this … He should never have been in Belmarsh prison [and] there should have been a deal struck by now to get him out. He’s been there for over five years.
