Good morning, everyone. It's so [inaudible]. Wherever you have come from around the world, welcome. And a grandmother of four [inaudible] f or a day. Thank you.
I have a few housekeeping matters [inaudible] who may speak and vote [inaudible] meeting. The screen behind [inaudible]. Please give your name from the room. We will begin on [inaudible]. We may have a large number of questions today. One of our customer service or team will contact you after the meeting. Craig Dunn.
Business on today's agenda are now [inaudible] board members, except for Bridget [inaudible] i s our company secretary, Craig Emery. During the year, we welcomed Holly Kramer [inaudible] shareholders they served and on behalf [inaudible] is responding. Has delivered strongly through that [inaudible] and ongoing capital discipline [inaudible] 9%. The share buy-back [inaudible] a nd improving returns. Resilience with customer impact [inaudible] and FY 2026. Disappointing. We felt the outage very seriously [Inaudible] c ustomers and for our people [inaudible] p lacing Telstra in the top [inaudible]. Of course, there is always more work. [Inaudible] the first year of executing Connected Future. Little while, we have seen extraordinary shifts, which are all connected to economic resilience and increasingly connected, in part accessing and connecting it [inaudible] resilience. They also [inaudible] our digital economy.
[Inaudible] capabilities in secure and resilient networks. The second is our commitment to driving digital inclusion. These are both areas where Telstra has the potential to secure Australia's future. By connecting more Australians to the digital economy, we can lift wages and reducing [inaudible] . This is good for our customers, our people, and for society to all Australians. No single organization can solve this alone. [Inaudible] build smarter and more resilient networks. We retain the ability for Australia [inaudible] is deployed and governed on [inaudible] to sovereign networks and digital infrastructure. [Inaudible] role here, and we will pursue these opportunities. There are a range of global and [inaudible] We understand this, and we understand [inaudible] in vulnerable circumstances [inaudible] return on the significant investments.
Services our customers [inaudible] different to what they expected [inaudible] mobile network covers around [inaudible] including AUD 3.8 billion [inaudible] and on a standalone basis [inaudible] that allows us to differentiate on [inaudible] t o date, no other.
[Inaudible] in policy and regulatory settings [inaudible] i nvestment that has delivered world [inaudible] p olicy makers are rightly [inaudible] c ompetition and affordability [inaudible] a bout the future of mobility [inaudible]. We also risk [inaudible] w hat do not solve complex challenges [inaudible] s olution [inaudible] r egulation that encourages the [inaudible]. They move outside of their own provider [inaudible] t o be set by the regulator [inaudible] s imply redistributes existing [inaudible] t hat regional and remote Australia [inaudible] p eople sometimes also [inaudible] t amp on, and it has been standard [inaudible] continue investing [inaudible] w ith clear goals for what we [inaudible] t o enabling Australia's [inaudible]. Is confident that Telstra is strongly positioned to navigate and [inaudible] i s accelerating, which means we all [inaudible] l eadership team and the entire team across Telstra for their commitment [inaudible] c ontinued investment in Telstra.
I am really delighted to be here for my [inaudible] shareholders. You can see as [inaudible] amortization and after leases [inaudible] c ash EPS up 14% [inaudible]. Growth was supported by tight cost [inaudible]. On the back of these results, we were pleased [inaudible] sent with our capital management framework [inaudible] year, we completed our one [inaudible] cost of capital and manage our [inaudible] s hare growth and together with increased [inaudible] g rowth across mobile, fixed [inaudible] a nd our infrastructure [inaudible. Additional results were partly impact [inaudible] f ocus on our core connectivity [inaudible] i n our international wholesale and enterprise business [inaudible] h ours and channels, including [inaudible] t o our AI powered digital [inaudible].
We also introduced [inaudible] m inutes [inaudible] t hese improve [inaudible] a nd more customers choosing our [inaudible] t he highest year end [inaudible] a dvanced capability and [inaudible] around 165,000 [inaudible] a round 97% of [inaudible] improvements and others are trend [inaudible] which is our measure of network [inaudible] work when outdoors [inaudible] confirmed what we said at the time.
Our commitment [inaudible] more resilient and reliable [inaudible] information and fixing [inaudible]. This includes working with key [inaudible] b ecause while AI demand is growing [inaudible] with long-term contracts [inaudible] the total strategic investment [inaudible] in the project's returns, including [inaudible] conditions upon which we [inaudible] over FY 2020 [inaudible] improve the experience on our net [inaudible] and lower latency [inaudible] also increasing our investment [inaudible] network resilience [inaudible] t o our goal of creating more value [inaudible] like agentic customer care [inaudible] with strong foundations [inaudible] d igital infrastructure assets, including [inaudible] over decades means [inaudible]. As I close, I would like [inaudible] w e enter FY 2027 with [inaudible. We believe it is the right strategy [inaudible]. Thank you.
Nathan outlined at the start of the [inaudible] i s acting as Returning Officer [inaudible]. The four numbers, including [inaudible]. Important reminder, the purpose of [inaudible]. We have highly experienced customer service [inaudible] t ime, and this will ensure we make [inaudible] t hrough me as the Chair of today's [inaudible] t o ask a question [inaudible] t o ensure there is an even [inaudible] m ove to a microphone. I'll begin with questions online. Nathan.
[Inaudible] group sold to DAZN in [inaudible] AUD 128 million in cash as a [inaudible] as opposed to owning a 3% of [inaudible].
[Inaudible] in return for selling our stake in [inaudible].
Why has Telstra decided not [inaudible].
[Inaudible] voting is frankly, the number of available, particularly when we've [inaudible].
[Inaudible] to attend, so I appreciate [inaudible]. It wasn't all that success [inaudible] on Microsoft or Amazon. [Inaudible] presentations before the presentation [inaudible] R&D work, people working there [inaudible] 5G broadband. I'm one of those [inaudible] Telstra gets its act together and provide [inaudible].
[Inaudible] the two business [inaudible]. They are more challenged, if you like [inaudible] t hat connected [inaudible] t o invest in other [inaudible].
[Inaudible] a large [inaudible] happened a year or so [inaudible].
Yeah, so, I mean [inaudible] that just because of where its economy is at. I mean [inaudible] of Telstra.
Okay.
Thank you. Our next question [inaudible].
Mr. Chairman [inaudible]. My address, I would like at this meet [inaudible]. How secure is our customer [inaudible] c ustomer stay secure and [inaudible]?
[Inaudible] see if data is one of the key risks [inaudible] to attack Telstra, either to [inaudible] the security aspects of the question you asked [inaudible] this committee where we review that. We do our very best to protect your [inaudible].
Understand it, and I am talking about [inaudible] s oftware engineer by my profession.
Yes, understand.
[Inaudible] your private. You hear a lot of say [inaudible].
One thing that we try to do [inaudible]. There are other organizations that inaudible]. How do we think about that? What could we [inaudible]?
Thank you, sir. Do you believe SpaceX plans to move [inaudible]?
Come back to [inaudible] i s a part of [inaudible] text coverage, and now [inaudible] with on our network [inaudible] s atellite technology inaudible. Things are very different. So, [inaudible] make their service better than it has been.
The question here, and I have a second one but [inaudible].
Rachel, that is a very good question, and can I thank you for [inaudible]? As I said in my opening remarks [inaudible]. As I said in the answer, [inaudible] something very seriously [inaudible] to do a thorough investigation. I mean, [inaudible] for market and community, and Vicki is now working on those. [Inaudible] doing, and the sort of [inaudible] our role as a board's [inaudible].
I would like to introduce Mr. Prentice.
Thank you. My question is, you're going to have a lot of capital expenditure coming up. To what [inaudible]. Well, funding a lot of infrastructure and capital expenditure that you've got coming up. So where do your priorities [inaudible] networks, because I should imagine with that outage, for example, there may be [inaudible] just on the network outage and [inaudible] the things that you're actually doing. I know that you're doing a [inaudible] ownership was a [inaudible] board representation, to tell you the truth, plus management underneath that. So you'll have priorities [inaudible] invest back in your business. I [inaudible] need to continue, for example. That's another story. So that's my questions for you.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Oh, and the other thing is, when you said you [inaudible]. That sounded like a politician. You know what I mean? We take that. We understand your pain and the cost of living or something like that, but I know you didn't mean it that way, so.
Okay. Well, I certainly didn't mean it that way. That was meant to be genuine. No, not at all, and I'm sorry you took it that way, sir. I'm not criticizing. What the external expert report showed across the network, that should've been rated as a higher priority than it was. I mean, it did get a higher priority, but it was clear it should've been higher. The engineering focus and a range of other things would've been very different. I'm sorry if I sounded [inaudible]. I don't mean to be. We've taken it very, very seriously, and we're working very hard to make sure that we strengthen our [inaudible] I take it at a high level about how we [inaudible] think the capital [inaudible] investors, and that capital discipline remains.
But the only way [inaudible] and you make choices about where your capital as shareholders should be invested to give you the very [inaudible] allocation of the capital is going through the year, but it tends to get the great [inaudible]. In that business plan, she will set out investment and why they are doing that. Obviously, that can be a function of sometimes improving resilience and providing a greater investment in risk [inaudible] might go to expanding some of the qualities of our mobile network because [inaudible] our customers and therefore grow through to shareholder value. So approach that and say, "Where do we think we can maximize your returns?" On the shareholder buy-back, I appreciate that [inaudible] thought about in doing that. Obviously, we will review that each year and decide [inaudible] about all other things being equal or high earnings per share and dividend per share.
Also, part of it is a function and we want to grow the dividend. Ideally, it would be as franked as high as it is possible the decisions as well. That would mean we would have a very, very low level of franking, and we do not think that is the best economic outcome for share [inaudible]. That's the reason we do it. Sorry, that is a long answer, but you had several questions there. Have I dealt with all your points, sir?
That is pretty good. Thank you for doing that, and I am sorry if I took you the wrong way or whatever.
No, not at all. It is really important, so I appreciate.
The theory is it reduces the number of shares on issue, therefore increases the value of the shares. I think a lot of companies, when they do a share buy-back, do it when they've got [inaudible] particularly high. I suddenly say, "Well, we've got a scarcity of stock, therefore the price will go up." Often, I think BHP, they did a share [inaudible]. When it [inaudible], "That we'll buy our own shares." They've really got to look at it and say, "Are these shares good value at buying back your own stock?" You're saying, and I know you can't give any indication, but you're sort of saying, "Well, I think this stock's good value because you can give it back to shareholders." [Inaudible] special dividend or something like that. Yeah.
Yes, and it works both ways. Obviously the higher your stock price, the less stock you buy back, and therefore, the less reduction you get in earnings per share and dividend per share. So it's a very important point, and obviously price of the stock when we go into a buyback. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir. We'll take a question from microphone number one.
I think it's good afternoon.
Is it good afternoon? I'm not sure. I think it might still be good morning.
[Inaudible] personal matter and a personal phone call.
Okay.
You can't seem to get it. What's happened is it's about my mobile. I rang my friend. Good chat for half an hour. This was just a simple phone call. The other person that they said on a phone, they had no idea and said, "Oh my, this is what it is." Those services in there and I only have my mobile phone, and find out how much that phone call cost me, or where do you go in, where once I had all these sort of services. Never mind.
No, he could sit down with you and explain how it works.
Yes.
Probably the best.
I'd love to be able to talk to old Bobby in Scotland or over in Oahu, and my son in New Zealand and a couple of other people. Yeah.
I'm Tom. I'm from.
This is what I'm finding, where I try to ring. You cannot get. It's online and everything's there. I think and use or something, all those junk calls, but here we are.
Do you want to have a chat? [Inaudible] t he options that you've got. Thank you.
We'll go to microphone number three on this side of the room.
Morning, Peter.
Good morning, Craig, and morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to speak on a few [inaudible] soldier here out of the place. [Inaudible] 660. Today there [inaudible] and I propose to just refresh some things through you, Craig. You weren't Chairman at the time, the Chief Financial Officer, and an associate of mine rang me on a Saturday. They happened to have [inaudible] and the managing [inaudible], is there any way that I could lean on you to help and room to lose such a big customer. I rang Mr. Ackland on a Saturday morning, and thanks [inaudible] and said I couldn't believe it, that the second in charge of Telstra rang me on a Saturday. We're fast-forward to the 8th of July, and we have an outage. No issue. Really looked like a fish out of water.
Not you, Mr. Chairman, and in fairness to Michael, I really thought that you as the chairman should have stepped up [inaudible] the thing. It was unfortunate that Vicki had to break her holiday and come back. She came now. Going to the outage, I want to know this. First, how much compensation has it cost the mum and dad shareholders? Because that affects our dividends. Second, have we fixed all the issues for those customers that were affected?
In our, what we call our consumer and small business customers, we've had around 33,000 complaints or requests for redress. 99% of those have been dealt with. Part of what we wanted to make sure complaints from customers, because obviously they're very important. That's cost the-
See, that's my question, Michael. Sorry, Craig, is that AUD 1 million [inaudible]. Quite rightly, Rachel, the shareholders she represents, these are [inaudible]. For the part to fail like that, and it went right. There were trains not running, businesses couldn't operate. Had to switch to the other network because it wasn't working. In a network that has provided that, we've got everything else. That's AUD 1 million . What are the effect of this? Any idea? A ballpark figure?
No, the relevant regulator is with their investigation. In the end, that's a matter for them about the action they take, and I don't have any capacity. It wouldn't be appropriate for me in any way. Matter for the regulator to decide, and we'll [inaudible].
The number one network. David Thodey, great job. Andy Penn [inaudible], you know? [Inaudible] caused such a problem, and the reputational damage that's been done to the shareholders is really [inaudible]. Why? The chairman of this company should have stepped [inaudible]. People came and told me, and I appreciate that I got the time to spend with you and Vicki this morning.
Yes.
Privately express. Because I can't believe. You know, like all it would've taken you to another company with the Acting CEO, Michael Ackland. Let's get his name right. We can't even, people, Auckland, Ackland, it's Michael Ackland. Anyway, that's the [inaudible] because I think that [inaudible].
All right. Well, thank you. I understand your comment, and I appreciate your views, Peter. I [inaudible] to their view, but I have spoken to a lot of people and got a lot of [inaudible]. When Vicki is away, I think he did a fine job. I appreciate you have got a different view about me being involved. I hear you.
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah.
We will take our next question.
Okay, thank you very much for Vicki and his team's hard work and thank you for the time for both directors. Telstra is one of the most important infrastructure. In view of the current era of AI, AI safety is the most important. In view of the incident that [inaudible] have intruded [inaudible], understand. The second part is that whether there is some AI teams or [inaudible] enhance the system so that no [inaudible] or in our infrastructure. Not like the Medicare case, that it happens for three months, that no one knows until the intruder termed himself up. Will there be cases that there will be intruder already in the system?
Adopting AI strategy so that they can cut costs, cut the people, so as to say enhance productivity. Whether Telstra will have a different approach that is AI. We are not cutting people, but enhancing people's productivity and satisfaction. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, sir. So you've raised a series of points there. Obviously, as I said earlier, AI is a fact of life. We can't pretend it doesn't exist. It does, and it will, and it will keep developing. My comments in my [reality] of Australia are [inaudible]. The very reason you went to [inaudible] Telstra people outside of Australia will be trying to use those models, either deliberately or perhaps through mistakes like Hugging Face, to target companies like Telstra. So it's really important arrangements. We have access to the very best AI models to defend ourselves because as you know, sir, you're obviously attack.
We have to be careful about publicly saying which models we use because I just want to say, I can assure you that we're using the very best and latest models we can as I suppose one of the benefits of being a critically important infrastructure in Australia so we can do that in the best possible way. per se. Again, we're trying to be very careful. As I said earlier, scalable technology, not getting it right, that's a very different thing. So look, we work very hard to do that [inaudible. Cybersecurity team has to sign off every time we use AI on a serious use case, and that can take some time, and it slows us down. We think that [inaudible].
If we do, and all other listed companies will do, we will protect our Australia infrastructure.
Yes.
From business side of it, it will be beneficial for all the infrastructure companies if they get together to have the most best of something like what Hugging Face have done when they are intruded by the [inaudible] Telstra will get the best of the tools from [inaudible]. Is that the case?
Well, we work infrastructure organization to defend Telstra, and we work very diligently to do that. That's again, why I made the point in my speech. The more digital infrastructure that underpins the rollout and support of AI that we have in Australia, the greater leverage and agency we have with discussions with other countries. That's why I think that's I mean, obviously, if we were harmed in any way that affected our people or our shareholders, we would obviously pursue every legal redress that we could.
We'll take our next [inaudible].
Today, there's a lot of opportunity for Telstra, and there's also risk to be managed. It'd be great [inaudible] to AI skills on the board [inaudible].
I've had this discussion with a number of my chair peers in other large companies in Australia, because there are so many disciplines, marketing, culture, human resources. I'm not being [inaudible] Telstra, given its strategy and the risks constantly looking about the makeup of our board, and whether we've got the right skills around the table. Increasingly, our view, and I think [inaudible] but increasingly, we'll do the same as CEO, because there's also the point of [inaudible].
Thank you very much. I also just wanted to say that the board [inaudible] to put it in the annual report.
Yeah.
But yeah, that's a great step for [inaudible]. Chair, I'd like to introduce Mr. Rowe.
Sorry, sir. We'll just lower the microphone. Sorry.
Thank you. [Inaudible] of understanding with other [inaudible].
[Inaudible] questions [inaudible] but b uilding data centers is [inaudible] so that they can achieve their [inaudible] positive for the returns on the Aura Network. We don't have formal arrangements with them. Vicki represents Telstra, [inaudible] have [inaudible] to meet with offshore telcos. Sorry, sir, I forgot your second question and I apologize. I wrote down goal and-
[Inaudible] goal.
Yes, we do, sir. Under our Connected Future 30 strategy that [inaudible] by 2030.
Chair, I'd like to introduce Peter Starr again.
[Inaudible] around that, what [inaudible] got India processing things. What's going on?
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Peter. Just on our Australia. Again, for business callers, if they make a call to our call centers in business hours, that will be answered in Australia. If they make a call outside of hours, obviously that becomes more challenging. [Inaudible] that we've made, I think it's over the last 12 months, Vicki, is [inaudible] certain functionality in what we do. Obviously, that's much easier to do if we can use Australians to answer our calls. From time to time, we do partner with global partners, and we do have global partnerships in India. [Inaudible] success in Australia or scale at the same speed that they can. [Inaudible] global partnership with Accenture on the application of AI. We think that partnership has been really important. I think, Vicki, you'd probably say [inaudible] all over how we use [inaudible].
As I said, they're mostly about making sure we can bring the expertise and scale to some of the work that we do in Australia to improve customer service.
Just to follow up, is there any processing of any of the monies [inaudible] years ago? I noticed that a payment that my client made [inaudible]. Is that happening? Given that my concern there is that we hear so much of scams and that-
Yes.
Vicki, about six months ago where our logo, her Chief of Staff, Jen Bryce. Because it really disturbed me, as a shareholder to see our logo. Concerned that Vicki didn't know about it, and then I brought it to her attention and [inaudible]. A lot of I get the things with the messaging and the texts.
Yes.
But let me tell you, Vicki, there's a lot. I was deeply disturbed by that, as you know, because I thought that's our logo. Aware of it, and obviously you acted pretty quick. Especially Google. Why are we still getting it? It's horrendous. I can't understand. Vicki, you're on those international boards and different things, and you're really at these things on behalf of everybody.
[Inaudible] and obviously, it's something we take very seriously. Why don't I pass to Vicki to comment? Because she's obviously involved in a lot of those discussions, including discussions with the go. Look, and I really appreciate you bringing that to our attention, Peter. That's important. This is just an awful thing that keeps happening. Innocent people get exposed to these awful scams which [inaudible].
But then we appreciate that. Just on your first point, it'd be really good following the meeting to get the details of [inaudible]. It is now. It's just a massive criminal operations around the world that are looking to scam people all the time, and internet, and suddenly makes [inaudible] but o bviously, it's very difficult to pick everyone up. The things I would say is, as Craig referenced, Scams Prevention Framework that will bring together the banks, financial institutions, the telcos, and the digital platforms [inaudible] i mportant step forward, because as you said, there are a lot of pieces to these chains where things [inaudible] i n that. I would just again [inaudible].
Someone's representing to be Telstra, p lease, if you're not sure, just hang up or don't answer an email or [inaudible]. Numbers that you know are us or come in and talk to us in store as well b ecause technology we're talking about that can be used for good, they're not using it for good, and I just want to reinforce we're investing. We have very capable teams working to stop these scams. People move [inaudible]. Just encourage you to please be alert.
Vicki, and I really appreciate the answer. That's what disturbs me is our logo. [Inaudible] this account, and you'll double your money and [inaudible]. Especially because, r eally, I show. Oh, I didn't know that was there. Tell me about, and I've had a look at it [inaudible] m aking a dent. That's my concern. [Inaudible] to the banks and lonely heart scams and [inaudible].
Nathan said we've now finalized discussions [inaudible] and t his is the direct [inaudible].
Good morning, fellow shareholders. It's been a real privilege to [inaudible] a cross telecommunications [inaudible] the b usiness. We have delivered improved return to shareholders while continuing [inaudible] a bility. [Inaudible] learning from what's occurred and o n a timely basis. [Inaudible] data and mobile dependency t o bring my experience, independence [inaudible]. It would be a privilege to serve with [inaudible] c ontribute to our success for the [inaudible].
[Inaudible] Australia, m ostly through our super fund. Also know that dealing with Telstra [inaudible] underneath keeps changing [inaudible] per second. It takes [inaudible] world securely [inaudible] are exactly that [inaudible] and they have the opportunity to return as a board [inaudible] career. As a part [inaudible] calling plans like Easy Saver Plus and BigPond that [inaudible] operates or whether it's helping to [inaudible] years in business. At Telstra [inaudible] and thoughtful capital allocation [inaudible] to do the best for their customers, build [inaudible] that I would be proud to be a part [inaudible].
[Inaudible] 3C are now being shown. I asked Telstra to move to annual director elections at [inaudible] BHP, News Corp, Rio Tinto, and [inaudible] thank you.
We will go to Peter Starr again.
Just quickly, I think [inaudible] on the board. I think it is really good. Holly?
Who is in favor of the re-election of Maxine and Ming, and the election of [inaudible] allocation of equity to our CEO, Vicki, [inaudible] all covered in the notice of meeting, and of course [inaudible]. This was reflected in [inaudible]. The outage occurred after [inaudible] was clear from management's review [inaudible] should bear accountability in FY [inaudible] remaining senior executives by [inaudible] promoter score for FY 2027. This will be reflected [inaudible] or submit your questions on [inaudible].
Could Vicki please summarize her share [inaudible]?
I don't think Vicki could [inaudible] to hand.
There are no further questions, so that concludes the questions [inaudible].
[Inaudible] on items three to five. Shareholders, on behalf of the-