Turnbull backs Ziggy’s decision to breach Caretaker Conventions

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news Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this morning said he respected Ziggy Switkowski’s decision to breach the Caretaker Conventions during the Election Campaign, and added that the NBN chairman was doing a “remarkable job” with the company.

Yesterday morning it was revealed that Switkowski had willfully and deliberately breached the Caretaker Conventions which ensure the political independence of the public service and government companies such as the NBN company during an election campaign.

A letter from Martin Parkinson (PDF), the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, to Shadow Finance Minister Tony Burke, confirmed Switkowski had breached the Caretaker Conventions several weeks ago with an article defending the NBN company’s actions in targeting whistleblowers, following Australian Federal Police raids on Labor premises designed to track down the whistleblowers.

Parkinson’s letter revealed Switkowski had been “strongly” advised the article would breach the Caretaker Conventions, but ignored the advice and went ahead anyway.

Speaking at a doorstop event today, Turnbull praised Switkowski and his actions, stating that the NBN chair was doing a “remarkable job” and had driven a “phenomenal turnaround” at the NBN project.

“The caretaker convention, compliance with it, if you like, is a matter to be determined by, as Martin Parkinson observed, by the head of the relevant agency, in this case that is NBN Co and that is Ziggy Switkowski,” said Turnbull.

“He explained why he made the statement he did, why he felt it was operationally necessary and I respect his decision to do so.”

“You can see the company was being accused in the public domain of very serious misconduct which was undermining the morale of 5,000 people working for it and he health that he had to set the facts straight and he has done that. But you have to remember, he is a very experienced man, Ziggy.”

Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos also backed Switkowski on Sky News yesterday, stating that the NBN chair and Parkinson had taken slightly different interpretations of the Caretaker Conventions.

However, Sinodinos noted that Switkowski might have realised he was walking into a “minefield” in publishing the controversial opinion piece that he did.

Yesterday afternoon, the NBN company issued a statement in which it appeared to argue that as its chair, Switkowski was required to act on behalf of the company in defending its reputation against accusations that it had concealed information that its rollout of the Coalition’s Multi-Technology Model was not going as planned.

Speaking in Perth yesterday afternoon, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the NBN company was doing “everything they can to cover up for Malcolm Turnbull’s incompetence and their own maladministration”.

Shorten said Switkowski was an “otherwise respectable businessman”, but that he had perpetrated a “shameful breach of the Caretaker Conventions”.

“Yet again, NBN Co are doubling down on the cover-up, on the denial,” he said.

“The NBN Co are doing everything they can with the Government to cover up the facts,” he said. “This is a disappointing sign of the lengths the NBN Co will go to cover up the policy.”

Image credit: Parliamentary Broadcasting

40 COMMENTS

  1. So PM Turnbull has given Mr Switkowski the go-ahead to breach caretaker conventions because he’s doing such a great job at NBN Co.
    That’s comforting.

    • They are working on that. More and more technically literate people are leaving or being sacked. As soon as the entire company is full of either ignorant people or people supporting the LNP ideology (hmm, did I just repeat myself there?) everyone will be happy in their trough.

        • NBNCo was setup as a monopoly with more power than Telstra, so it is no surprise that NBNCo would tend towards behaviour and a culture like Telstra.

          • NBNCo was setup as a monopoly with more power than Telstra

            How so?

            Unlike Telstra, NBNCo requires RSP’s to survive.

          • Mathew has pretty much stated he doesn’t know the difference between a natural monopoly and vertical one

          • The culture became more and more like Telstra when more and more of the board and upper management became all ex-Telstra Coalition shills.

          • The culture became more and more like Telstra when more and more of the board and upper management became all ex-Telstra Coalition shills.

            True dat.

          • NBN Co provides a Ethernet Bitstream Service (Layer 2) between the Network Boundaries, the Network to Network Interface (NNI), to the User Network Interface (UNI) at your customers’ premises.

            RSPs are required to configure four components in order to make the service available to the consumer.

            According to Mathews retarded bullshit, the entire international submarine cable network, the U.S. Government and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) are monopolies. Possibly the World Wide Web Consortium as well.

            It must take all of Mathew’s tiny brain just to move those legs!!

          • According to Mathews retarded bullshit, the entire international submarine cable network, the U.S. Government and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) are monopolies. Possibly the World Wide Web Consortium as well.

            I have to admit Snowy, it would not surprise me one bit to find that Mathew thinks the entire internet is an ALP/Left conspiracy…

          • “I have to admit Snowy, it would not surprise me one bit to find that Mathew thinks the entire internet is an ALP/Left conspiracy…”

            After all the initial birthplace of Mathew’s tragic dilemma was at DARPA. A US. Government conspiracy. Seriously, its a well known fact & well documented that Al Gore contributed much to the growth of the Internet when he was U.S. Vice President

            Fortunately the Australian government didn’t have anything to do with the ARPANET project otherwise the Internet would never come into being.

          • > NBN Co provides a Ethernet Bitstream Service (Layer 2) between the Network Boundaries, the Network to Network Interface (NNI), to the User Network Interface (UNI) at your customers’ premises.

            The only way an RSP can connect to a customer on the NBN is pay CVC & AVC charges as dictated by NBNCo. This returns us to the days before Internode installed their own DSLAMs in local exchanges where Telstra had a very similar charging policy.

            RSPs cannot prioritise traffic within the NBNCo network without paying additional charges (e.g. $300/month AVC for 5/5Mbps of priority traffic) limiting the ability of RSPs to innovate with plans like Internode’s FlatRate, temporary prioritisation or guaranteed performance for blocks of time.

            > According to Mathews retarded bullshit, the entire international submarine cable network, the U.S. Government and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) are monopolies.

            No I don’t consider that as there are multiple companies which offer transit between companies. However Bass Strait does offer a good example where prior to BassLink becoming active it was more expensive to buy transit between Melbourne & Launceston than Melbourne & LA.

            I see you have turned to petty insults because you are unable to logically defend your position.

            Just remember that as a support of Labor’s FTTP you are responsible for the failure to deliver on it’s promises, for 79% on fibre connected at 25Mbps or slower and for FTTN. If you had chosen to speak out in 2010 when Labor first published their detailed plans then they could have been corrected. Instead we have FTTN.

          • The only way an RSP can connect to a customer on the NBN is pay CVC & AVC charges as dictated by NBNCo.

            The only way an RSP can connect to a customer on the NBN is pay CVC & AVC charges as dictated by the LPA.

            Fixed that for you Mat :o)

  2. Must be a hard position to be in. How do you sack someone who can blow the whistle on you?

  3. “You can see the company was being accused in the public domain of very serious misconduct”

    So his response was to commit very serious misconduct.

    I can’t see a flaw in that logic >.<

  4. How many Turnbull’s does it take to change a light bulb?
    None, Turnbull doesn’t change anything

    • “British Telecom have had astounding,astounding success with a string to the candle approach and my team are confident this will be more than adequate for all Australian households”

  5. Speaking at a doorstop event today, Turnbull praised Switkowski and his actions, stating that the NBN chair was doing a “remarkable job” and had driven a “phenomenal turnaround” at the NBN project.

    I see the “Liberal Reality Distortion Field” is in full force this election if Malcolm thinks the blowouts in time and money are a “remarkable job”…

    “He explained why he made the statement he did, why he felt it was operationally necessary and I respect his decision to do so.”

    There would have been no breach if he’d sent it to the “5,000 people working for it”, but he didn’t, he decided to try and affect the outcome of an election by spinning it to the public.

    • Smarter would be to internal memo it and it accidentally gets leaked to murdocistan.

    • “Remarkable Job” = Remarkably BAD job
      “Phenomenal Turnaround” = Going backwards

      As far as I can see, in my interpretation based on the above, Turnedballs statement is 100% truthful and accurate. He doesn’t have to lie when he doesn’t qualify a negative or positive delivery.

      Its all about how you interpret these things.

      “He explained why he made the statement he did, why he felt it was operationally necessary and I respect his decision to do so.”

      append “even if I thought him a cock for it”

      Every day, all around me I see people doing “remarkable jobs”. The usual remark I make is “twat”.

      I see remarkable driving on the roads all the time :-)

  6. Why have caretaker convention, if such rules can be so easily broken and with no recourse, in fact a pat on the back?

    • yep,screw it, free for all. thats pretty much the conclusion to draw unless they want an alternative arrangement. Switkowski could just have meetings and memos declaring intention to clarify the situation in three weeks time when the election is done. We know though, he was hired largely to tow the line

  7. Well this sets a nice precedent for future elections. Government departments will become partisan electoral mouthpieces.

  8. Politicians sticking up for one another even when they break the rules. No surprises there.

  9. It’s inexcusable that Turnbull should try and excuse Switkowski’s breach of election Caretaker Conventions.
    He’s fighting to save his arse and doesn’t care what it takes. Typical LNP.

  10. Typical of this government, they just do whatever they want and damn the laws and rules. The biggest surprise for me was that uncle Arfur even remembered who Ziggy is.

  11. Bill Shorten says Ziggy is an otherwise respectable businessman.

    Since when?

    Ziggy’s previous tenure in the communications industry is second only to that of Sol Trujillo – and that is a second place at the wrong end of the scale (interestingly, at the helm of the same Australian telecommunications giant, who he is, amazingly again, doing his best to provide benefit to).

    I won’t even dignify the disgraceful lies of Malcolm Turnbull with a response.

    • @Robert
      “Bill Shorten says Ziggy is an otherwise respectable businessman.”

      This is Shorten saying that he has issue with the action, not the person. It also demonstrates through the businessman comments that when he’s prime minister he will treat him with respect before firing his arse, unlike the Liberals who bagged out the last board before sacking them with disgrace.

  12. An open question to both Prime Minister Turnbull and Opposition Leader Shorten. WHEN will you agree to establish a fair, transparent and independent federal ICAC?

    • I’d support that too, I think the Greens are one of the only parties that have that as a policy.

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