Laurie Patton, the recently departed chief executive of Internet Australia, wants a public apology from NBN Co chief Bill Morrow over what he says was an “unprovoked attack” on IA in Senate Estimates hearings.
Patton says Morrow made a “false attack” on IA based on what he clams were “false and defamatory comments made under parliamentary privilege”.
The former IA boss, who is now chief executive of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) in Australasia, has called on the NBN Co board to instruct Morrow to apologise.
Patton says Morrow made his remarks at Senate Estimates hearings in answer to questions about NBN Co’s social media policy by Greens Senator Scott Ludlam.
{loadposition peter}Patton told iTWire that the controversial NBN boss had falsely accused IA of having been blocked on his organisation's Twitter account and had made derogatory remarks about IA and its executives.
The former IA chief says Ïnternet Australia has not been blocked, nor has he been blocked.
"Mr Morrow shot from the hip and got it wrong. But so far he has refused to own up to his mistake and retract his intemperate remarks," Patton said.
Patton cites the case of high-profile academic and NBN critic Mark Gregory, who has been blocked, and accuses NBN Co of being "thin skinned social sensors".
Patton cites Gregory’s comments that, "Over the past six months, Mr Morrow has made a number of false and misleading statements in the media, has denigrated anyone that is providing negative feedback or criticism of the NBN, and has now gone far beyond what is reasonable for a highly paid CEO of a government business enterprise".
He says Morrow’s remarks come on the heels of other "public missteps" by the “highly paid former telco executive, who continues to stridently defend NBN Co's use of FTTN in the face of rising complaints from customers and warnings that it relies on what IA has routinely called Telstra's ageing copper wires".
“IA's technical experts are prominent among critics who claim the FttN network will need to be rebuilt in future years as it fails to keep up with global broadband speeds. In its latest global Internet speed report this week Akamai has dropped Australia from 50 to 51. Not a huge change, but still heading in the wrong direction.
“Morrow caused a major kerfuffle when he admitted that NBN Co has not budgeted for upgrading its FttN customers in future years, saying that people wanting higher Internet speeds will have to pay for their own upgrades.
“His well-publicised comment that consumers weren't interested in fast broadband was met with industry incredulity.
“Earlier this week, two NBN Co executives posted a blog defending the use of FttN, a sign the organisation must be feeling the heat of public criticism,” Patton added.
In his time as IA CEO, Patton has been a consistent and highly vocal critic of the NBN technical strategy.
But, he told iTWire he has never attacked the organisation's employees and points to one of his recent comments that, "There are some great people working at NBN Co who would be very pleased and relieved to receive new riding instructions from the government that allowed them to build a future-proofed NBN capable of meeting our long-term needs."