When Stephen Rue was appointed Optus chief executive in November last year, his top priority was restoring the nation’s trust in its second-largest telecommunications company.

After a string of public relations disasters, most prominently a major cyberattack in 2022 and a major network outage a year later, Rue’s successor, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, stood down with pressure mounting locally and from Optus’ state-owned Singaporean parent company, Singtel.

Rue was the man they called on. He had been at the NBN for the past decade, and for the past six years as its chief executive, leading the initial roll-out of the network. At the time of his exit, he was the highest paid public servant in the country, with a full package of $3 million in his final year.

Coming into a company in crisis, th

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