By Kishor Napier-Raman,Madeleine Heffernan
Copyright brisbanetimes
Monday brought fresh horror for Optus, which suffered a Triple Zero outage just weeks after a similar catastrophe was linked to three deaths.
It was a happier time for the telco’s former boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, who was unveiled as new chief executive at Australian Unity on Monday morning. Bayer Rosmarin quit the Optus top job in 2023 after presiding during a devastating cyberattack and major outage in successive years, and her ultimate soft landing should give the telco’s current boss Stephen Rue, who has floundered through the past week, reason to rest a little easier.
But no landing has been softer than that of Optus’ chief customer officer, enterprise and business Gladys Berejiklian, the former NSW premier who remains a very well remunerated (and rarely seen) executive at the telco – despite failing to appeal against a finding of serious corrupt conduct made against her by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Berejiklian celebrated her 55th birthday last week. This is significant because it means she’s now eligible for a generous pension scheme afforded to former state parliamentarians. Based on CBD’s back-of-envelope calculations, which take into account Berejiklian’s 18 years as an MP and various ministerial roles, she’ll be taking home about $200,000 a year for life courtesy of the NSW taxpayer. She can also pocket the cash as a lump sum payment if she so desires. Happy birthday, Gladys!
