Hydro’s bumper payday

SENIOR executives enjoyed a bumper year at Hydro Tasmania in 2016/17, with wage rises of up to 28 per cent.

The CEO of the stateowned company Steve Davy netted a 16 per cent pay rise to gross $607,000 in salary, superannuation, incentive payments, car and other benefits — twice the Premier’s pay, Hydro’s annual report reveals.

Hydro returned a profit of $20.1 million before tax on revenues of $1.5 billion and paid no dividend to the State Government, its sole shareholder.

Hydro Tasmania made a $65 million loss last year. During the brief era of the carbon tax, it posted successive profits of more than $230 million.

Hydro is not expected to pay a dividend to the state budget until 2019/20. Aurora paid $27 million. Most of the company’s senior executives en- joyed increases in gross salary of more than 13 per cent last year, thanks in part to hefty short-term incentive payments.

The Managing Director of Hydro’s consulting arm Entura, Tammy Chu, received $370,000 in total compensation last financial year — a jump of 28 per cent — while other executives enjoyed pay rises of between 13 and 15 per cent, thanks largely to bonuses.

A Hydro spokesman said no executive bonuses were paid last year during the state’s energy crisis.

“The increase looks unusually big because last year’s figure was unusually low,” he said. “The leadership team forewent any incentive bonuses last year, when the business was affected by the energy supply challenge and did not record a profit.”

Seven Hydro executives grossed more than $300,000. By comparison Premier Will Hodgman is paid $290,000 a year and the Treasurer Peter Gutwein $242,000.

The annual report notes that the company plans to pay its workers a rise of up to 3 per cent next financial year, on top of 3 per cent last year.

Unions Tasmania secretary Jessica Munday said the disparity between executive and staff salary rises was an “astounding example of income inequality in Tasmania”.

Michael Anderson from the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union said Hydro staff were struggling to achieve even a modest pay rise from Hydro in current enterprise bargaining negotiations.

Energy Minister Guy Barnett said the annual reports showed that the state’s power generation and retail companies were in good financial shape noting Hydro Tasmania’s $20 million profit and the retailer’s $30 million from a revenue of $903 million.