Pay Up, Performance Down: Why Are We Still Funding Dud SOEs?

The Taxpayers’ Union is today calling on the Government to privatise State‑Owned Enterprises (SOEs) following Treasury analysis revealing alarming disconnects between executive pay and corporate performance.

Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Tory Relf said:

“Simeon Brown is right to call out underperforming SOEs, but strongly worded letters won’t fix a broken model. He needs to start selling them.”

“Landcorp’s profits have nearly halved, yet its CEO scored a $927,000 pay day. If that happened in the private sector, there’d be consequences, not $167,000 pay rise.”

“Taxpayers are funding gold-plated salaries for bottom-of-the-table results. It’s indefensible.”

“Even Treasury says partially privatised companies do better because private owners demand accountability. The answer isn’t tighter pay bands – it’s ownership reform.”

“If Minister Brown wants real results, he should stop subsidising failure and start selling these dud SOEs.”