Malcolm Turnbull asked NBN Co board members to resign

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/24/malcolm-turnbull-asked-nbn-resign

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Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed that he asked members of the NBN Co board, the government-owned company responsible for operating Australia’s broadband network, to resign last week.

A spokesman for Turnbull confirmed to Guardian Australia that the communications minister had made the request ahead of the NBN Co board meeting last Friday but could not say when the approach was made. News that almost the entire board had offered their resignation broke on Monday, with the communications minister previously unwilling to comment on the matter.

The spokesman said there was no further comment on when a new board would be installed, but it is understood the matter will be considered at the next the next federal cabinet meeting where the tendered resignations will also be formally considered.

The NBN Co refused to comment.

Labor communications spokesperson and candidate for the Labor leadership Anthony Albanese said the move signalled the beginning of the "trashing of the national broadband network".

Turnbull had been a critic of the NBN Co board during his time as shadow communications minister. “It is remarkable that such a large board doesn’t have anyone with hands-on experience in building a telecommunications network or running one, and if you were assembling a board for a project of this kind, that’s the sort of experience you would want to have on it,” he said recently.

It has been suggested that the former Telstra chief executive and physicist Ziggy Switkowski could be appointed as a replacement chairman of the board. Earlier in the month Turnbull described Switkowski as a “very well qualified” person to chair the board.

The Abbott government has signalled at least three examinations into broadband: an independent audit of NBN Co's books, a review of its commercial progress and a Productivity Commission inquiry into broadband policy.

The Coalition is looking to change Australia’s national broadband network from a faster fibre-to-the-premises model, begun under the previous Labor government, to a slower and cheaper fibre-to-the-node model.

The move has met with protest, and an online petition calling for the Coalition to return to the Labor model has received nearly 260,000 signatures.

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