Internet Australia's top members to step down

Internet Australia’s executive director, chairwoman and secretary have all revealed plans to step down from their positions amid ongoing controversy over the make-up of the nbn.

Executive director Laurie Patton, chairwoman Anne Hurley and secretary George Fong have all announced that they will not be standing for re-election at the peak body’s upcoming AGM.

In a letter to long-time critic Grahame Lynch, republished in Independent Australia by Patton, Hurley said she is stepping down because she is tired of spending “inordinate amounts of time defending myself and the organisation against baseless attacks from people who clearly have questionable agendas or are pushing someone else’s barrow”.

Internet Australia has been a tireless critic of the government’s multitechnology mix model for the nbn rollout and an advocate for the use of fibre to the distribution point (FTTdp) technology in the absence of a full fibre rollout.

This stance has not won the industry body any favours with the Coalition or its more vocal supporters, and the industry body has repeatedly come under attack from these quarters.

Hurley said she is leaving Internet Australia but does not plan to back down on her advocacy for “finding the non-political bipartisan solution for fixing the mess that is the current nbn”.

Patton meanwhile refuted suggestions that Internet Australia’s policy has been “pro-ALP”, stating that it has only ever been “pro-Australia and based on expert advice from the board and the membership”.

Pictured: Laurie Patton.

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