NBN staff are living the high life.

The public servants responsible for the rollout of Australia’s high-speed National Broadband Network billed taxpayers for $12 million worth of international and domestic flights last year.

NBN Co revealed the figure in response to questions from Labor senator Catryna Bilyk, who has been demanding answers about the scale of waste at the government-owned company.

It follows the revelation last week that NBN Co spent $437,000 on high-end espresso machines and coffee for its 6000 staff, in what was described as a “productivity measure”. The $12 million figure equates to about three domestic return flights for each employee per year.

“Malcolm Turnbull’s second rate copper NBN is so bad that even NBN Co has given up on videoconferencing,” senator Bilyk said. “Instead, NBN Co has spent $12 million of taxpayers’ money on flights in 2016 alone — that’s an average of $1 million every single month.

“Under Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals, Australians aren’t getting the NBN they need — they’re just getting more waste and mismanagement from this out of touch Prime Minister.”

Why has #NBN spent $12m on airfares for year 31/12/2016 when they should be championing online meetings/skype etc?https://t.co/4GOB9RoM9c — Tailgator (@Tailgator1) May 20, 2017

In a statement, a spokeswoman for NBN Co said that all employee travel was “undertaken strictly in line with NBN’s Travel and Reimbursement Policy” and was “subject to regular internal reviews”.

“Employees are required to maintain comprehensive records of all travel undertaken,” she said. “NBN is a national project. We recognise that as we continue building and operating a fast broadband network for all Australians, our employees will at times be required to travel in delivering on this objective.”

Users on Twitter slammed the travel costs. “Why has #NBN spent $12m on airfares for year 31/12/2016 when they should be championing online meetings/skype etc?” asked @Tailgator1.

“Because they’re thieving government workers, taking taxpayers for a ride #NBN,” replied @Demon_Dave. “They know just how lousy #Fraudband is,” added @southwin28.

“Why should @NBN_Australia staff be flying international, surely not to learn about FTTH, FRAUDBAND probably only in Australia,” wrote @Joffre2000.

frank.chung@news.com.au