Turnbull stacks NBN Review with Telstra cronies

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blog if you’re an obsessive NBN watcher as your writer is, you will already have noticed the news reported by the Financial Review newspaper this morning that yet another executive of long association with Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been appointed to assist NBN Co with its upcoming Strategic Review. The newspaper reports (we recommend you click here for the full article):

“Former Telstra executive Justin Milne has been brought in to NBN Co’s offices in Sydney to advise the chairman Ziggy Switkowski on the national broadband network and its strategic review.”

You can find my thoughts on this and other recent NBN appointments under the new Coalition Federal Government in a piece published on Delimiter 2.0 this morning (subscriber content) that I titled Stacking the deck: NBN Review filled with Turnbull cronies. A sample paragraph:

“NBN Co’s Strategic Review will be conducted by a cluster of ex-Telstra executives with prior personal connections to Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party, supported by external consultants. Does anyone still believe the result will be independent, objective and ‘technology-neutral’?”

Personally, I have to say, I find myself severely disappointed by the actions which Turnbull has taken since taking office. From appointing a new NBN Co executive chairman with little experience in deploying telecommunications infrastructure, and who has not held a post in the telco sector for almost a decade, to canvassing executives with a similar lack of experience for NBN Co’s board, to stacking NBN Co’s top executive ranks with ex-Telstra managers who he knows personally. Things are already going sour under Turnbull’s watch. It’ll be interesting to see what comes next.