I caught a plane to Melbourne last year and I ended up sitting next to a bloke who works for the NBN company.   I won't identify him, he was a non-engineering professional - so he had a corporate job, nothing to do with building the network.  I asked him why he was going to Melbourne, he said it was a bit of a jolly, they had plenty of budget for travel and he was going down to drive around a few facilities, have a look at a few buildings then a big lunch then home.  

There aren't many companies that operate with the sorts of largesse that NBN company doles out.  I thought it went out with Chris Skase and Bondy.

 A few days ago the Financial Review newspaper carried a report about the NBN company's  training and education budgets.  What struck me was the NBN company's own statement about what it spends its $9 million annual internal staff education budget on.

NBN Co’s statement to the Senate estimates committee said: “NBN Co has a well-defined policy on education for staff. This policy applies to permanent employees only.”

This included allowances for attending conferences, media training, occupational health and safety training and the “establishment and development of appropriate relationships”

According to the Financial Review's article, NBN company has 1674 employees.  That's a nice little $5,000 kicker to the benefits each year for conferences, media training and the establishment of appropriate relationships.

Now the numbers and the NBN company statement I have referred to are the result of questions asked of the NBN Company in Senate Estimates, where there are penalties for telling porkies.

Outside of Senate Estimates after this issue had become a bit of a story, NBN company spin doctor Andrew Sholl said no, we also spend the training money on training for contractors who've got to do the installations etc.   You'd reckon NBN company might have been able to work that out before it gave evidence to the Senators wouldn't you?

Here's a link to the Fin Review article.   I'd be obliged if one of you knew where those source document, the NBN company statement to the Senate Estimates might be found.   There - I nearly delegated!