THE Coalition has put NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley on notice that his position may not continue under an Abbott government after a horror week for the $37.4 billion project in which it was revealed that workers and residents were exposed to asbestos risks during the rollout.
As evidence emerged of an exodus of senior construction and safety staff from NBN Co in recent months, the opposition's communications spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull, reiterated concerns about the selection of Mr Quigley.
Although he stopped short of saying he would appoint a new NBN Co chief executive, Mr Turnbull said: "I don't think (Mr Quigley) was the best choice for that role given the fact that he had never run a telecom company or built a telecommunications network, been responsible for building one; he had worked for a vendor. Certainly the performance of the NBN Co in its continuation of its construction project has not been very impressive, has it?"
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, who would need to be consulted on any management changes by the high-powered NBN Co board, has given Mr Quigley his full support.
Mr Turnbull's comments came as the NBN Co revealed that a contractor on the project had been killed in an accident on an NBN work site at Kiama, near Wollongong, south of Sydney, and as the Gillard government dramatically escalated its intervention into the asbestos exposure issue, with Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten announcing that Labor would convene a meeting on Monday with Telstra and the main communications unions.
Telstra and the NBN Co have been rocked by revelations this week that some contractors working for both organisations have been mishandling asbestos contained in Telstra pits that are being prepared for the National Broadband Network rollout, raising the threat of contamination for employees and residents near the work sites.
Mr Turnbull yesterday insisted that occupational health and safety had to be the top priority and declared that the Coalition's cheaper, quicker $20.4bn rollout would mean disturbing fewer deadly asbestos fibres during construction. "Strict compliance with asbestos safety rules are not optional," he said. "It has to happen. And occupational health and safety have to be the top priority. Clearly that hasn't been the case. There's plenty of blame to go around, both with Telstra and the NBN Co, and no doubt their contractors."
He maintained that the Coalition's fibre-to-the-node network - which would see new fibre cables laid to street corners and then linked into Telstra's copper network for the last connection to homes - "does not involve so much disturbance of legacy infrastructure".
The Gillard government ramped up its involvement by calling a crisis meeting for Monday.
Asbestos victims advocates and unions seized on the announcement, making fresh calls for a James Hardie-style asbestos fund, standardised training for all workers dealing with the deadly fibre and significant revisions to the training requirements for workers on NBN Co and Telstra sites.
Mr Shorten, a former Australian Workers Union national secretary, said Labor would ensure Telstra would "not walk away from any claims" for compensation and that a register would be established for anyone potentially exposed to asbestos.
Telstra, which is responsible for the asbestos remediation in its infrastructure, has deployed 200 specialists to manage cases of breaches in asbestos management by the telco and its contractors.
NBN Co has also activated a team of managers to oversee asbestos-related issues across the country. But new doubts have been cast on the NBN Co's ability to meet its ambitious rollout schedule after at least seven senior executives with responsibility to oversee construction of the project have exited in the past two months, following other key departures.
The Australian has learned that senior managers from NBN Co's operations division have either resigned or been made redundant in more than four internal organisational restructures that have occurred over the past 18 months.
Last night, NBN Co spokesman Andrew Sholl: "NBN Co's turnover is well below the national average."
But insiders said resignations among senior staff with years of construction experience have increased in recent months as dissatisfaction grows with the way the company is being run.
"It's a bad situation that is just getting worse. It's not a very fun place to work and there are tonnes of people who are pretty dissatisfied in there," said one former executive who wished to remain anonymous.
Key departures in recent months include the NBN Co's executive general manager of construction strategy, quality and efficiency Paul Takac and its manager of construction, health and safety Paul Donker. Executive general manager of construction program management Stephen Butler left in January,
Some sources say the departures underline the influence of NBN Co chief operating officer Ralph Steffens, a German expatriate who has instigated four organisational restructures since joining the company at the end of 2011.
"Ralph pretty much has the whip hand in there. It's pretty much turning into the Ralph and Mike show," one NBN insider said. In March, NBN Co was forced to slash the number of homes and businesses that would be passed by the fibre-to-the-home network by the end of the financial year by as much as 44 per cent, or 150,000. The network is now expecting to pass 190,000-220,000 premises with fibre by the end of June, compared with the 341,000 promised.
One NBN source said increasing levels of administration, bureaucratic processes and a focus on short-term targets had caused a "structural, organisational and operational" crisis at the company.
theaustralian.com.au 1 Jun 2013
The NBN is another monumental fraud and 'Money for Mates' deal at the expense of the tax paying general population.
It is very doubtful that the full extent of the fraud will ever be reported.
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