Simon Hackett, Patrick Flannigan and Justin Milne join NBN Co board

Three directors have been appointed to NBN Co’s board: Internode founder Simon Hackett, one time NBN head of construction Patrick Flannigan and Telstra alumni Justin Milne.

The three will serve as non-executive directors on the board. Milne is now the fourth Telstra alumni to be given a senior role at NBN Co in the last six weeks.

Hackett, Flannigan and Milne join existing NBN Co board members Ziggy Switkowski, Alison Lansley and Kerry Schott.

Flannigan served as the chief executive of Service Stream from 2003 to 2009. He joined NBN Co as its head of construction in 2009 and left the organisation in 2011.

Since then he has founded Utility Services Group and is currently its CEO and MD.

Milne was at one time CEO of OzEmail. He joined Telstra in 2002 as managing director of BigPond and was later promoted to group managing director, responsible for BigPond and Telstra Media. He left Telstra in 2010.

Hackett founded the ISP Internode. Internode was sold to iiNet in 2012 and Hackett joined iiNet’s board later that year.

A statement from Comms Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the three new appointees have “lengthy careers in telecommunications, broadband and the deployment of linear infrastructure”.

Shadow Comms Minister Jason Clare was critical of Milne’s appointment.

A statement titled “More ‘jobs for the boys’ at NBN Co” from Clare’s office drew several links between Milne and Turnbull, and said “Malcolm Turnbull has today appointed another mate to the board of NBN Co”.

The statement also said: “Despite the assurance that the NBN Strategic Review would be ‘technology neutral’, Mr Turnbull has appointed one of the most outspoken critics of fibre-to-the-premises and one of the most outspoken advocates of fibre-to-the-node.”

The statement then quoted Milne as saying, in April this year, that: “FTTP is ridiculous overkill and underlying the ideas behind FTTP is a lack of understanding of the internet.”

Conflict of interest?

Some commentators have raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, given that Simon Hackett owns more than $37 million worth of shares in iiNet and Milne has shares in Telstra worth $1.5 million. Both companies have business relationships with NBN Co.

Milne has said he will sell his Telstra shares in the coming weeks to avoid any conflict.

Hackett will leave the board of iiNet at the end of November. But according to the AFR, Hackett told iiNet MD Michael Malone that there are “no planned changes” to his 3.74% stake in the company.

However, an NBN Co spokesperson said directors - like Hackett and Milne - would absent themselves from discussions that could cause a conflict of interest.

According to The Australian, a spokesperson for Turnbull said the government wasn’t worried about Hackett’s stake in iiNet and that his resignation from the iiNet board satisfied any potential conflict of interest.

Pictured: Simon Hackett. Image courtesy of iiNet