Tas NBN director lobbies for key Aurora supplier

A Tasmanian NBN Co director has been listed on the state's new lobbyist register as an associate director of Profile Trust, which represents the company that built Aurora's pilot fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network.

Tasmania NBN Co director and associate director of lobbyist firm Profile First, Jody Fassina, was yesterday added to the state's newly-launched lobbyist register list. Firms intending to continue lobbying the Tasmanian Government had until yesterday to join the list.

Fassina was appointed to the Tasmanian NBN Co last month, along with Sean Woellner, who was the former chief of infrastructure project consultancy, Tenix Alliance, which is also a client of Profile Trust.

Other Profile Trust clients, however, have closer links to the state's NBN plans. Infrastructure construction company Bilfinger Berger Services, according to its website, was responsible for the design and implementation of the pilot FTTH project of Tasmanian NBN Co's joint owner Aurora Energy. Other similar large infrastructure Profile Trust clients, which are possible candidates for a stake in the civil construction part of Tasmania's NBN, include Grocon, Macmahon Contractors and Thales Australia.

Six lobbyist consultancies have registered on the new list, though only Profile Trust has connections to the IT industry via IT consultancy, Accenture.

Fassina told ZDNet.com.au that the question whether there was a potential for a conflict of interest was fair, but he said he would not lobby on behalf of Profile Trust's client base as a director of the Tasmanian NBN Co board, which is chaired by Doug Campbell.

Civil construction work on the Tasmanian NBN has been slated to commence in October, Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy said last month.

Tasmania's register follows those established by the Queensland and Federal governments.