Terria ‘Not a real bid’ says Telstra boss
A Telstra group managing director has derided Terria’s bid for the National Broadband Network as nothing more than a political play, going as far as to say the Optus-led group is not even intending on making a real bid.
Telstra wholesale GMD Kate McKenzie made the claims in an interview on Radio National yesterday – but refused to put a price on potential access prices should Telstra win the tender. “I don’t think it’s a real bid, no, I think it’s a political play,” McKenzie said. “They’ve taken a politician to run the bid, they make a lot of noise in the media, but we don’t see a lot of substance behind it.” Speaking to CommsDay, Terria Chairman and former NSW Treasurer Michael Egan literally laughed off McKenzie’s comments, accusing Telstra of being “juvenile.” “I think you’ve got to be careful about who’s got something real, hard to talk about here, and who’s just peddling distortion and distraction,” said McKenzie. She went on to defend Telstra’s anti-separation stance after an Optus-commissioned report said the NBN may have higher prices and less competition without separation. She said the findings were “pretty self-serving, when you get one of your ex-employees to write a report that says what you’d like it to say.”
