Conroy misses NBN board date
Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy has missed the self-imposed deadline of July to announce the National Broadband Network Company's remaining board members and other details.
Stephen Conroy at the ATUG Awards earlier this year
(Credit: Suzanne Tindal/ZDNet.com.au)
Conroy is expected to announce the remaining spots on the NBN board this week. However, earlier in July at the launch of his Future Directions paper, he said the chairperson, CEO, board members and lead advisor roles would be settled by the end of the month.
The appointment of the remaining members of the board will be a critical event for states hoping to host the headquarters of the NBN Company. The company received a name change with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) last Wednesday. Prior to this the company had only been known by its Australian Company Number.
Conroy had told state ICT ministers last month that the board, when appointed, would select the location of the NBN Co Ltd's headquarters. Queensland ICT Minister Robert Schwarten was understood to have made the state's bid for the headquarters at last week's Australian Labor Party National Conference.
Executive chairman, Mike Quigley, who was appointed last month, is understood to have been in Canberra since his appointment meeting the NBN officials within the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy.
Also expected this week, is the announcement of the lead advisor for the NBN implementation study. Unless the study's schedule is pushed back, the lead advisor will face an extremely tight schedule with the full report due by February 2010, and some interim reports due this month.
The government has already appointed interim directors to the NBN board, including former ninemsn executive Martin Hoffman.
Hoffman joined four public sector employees appointed as interim directors at the time the company was registered with ASIC, including James Cameron, first assistant secretary, regional strategy digital economy and research for the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy; David Martine, general manager financial systems division in the Department of Treasury; and David Yarra, chief audit executive within the Department of Finance and Deregulation. The secretary for the company is Norman Holcroft, who is the corporate secretary of the Australian Government Solicitor.
The implementation study will determine the operating arrangements for the state-owned company to manage the NBN, its network design and financing arrangements such as attracting private sector investment.