From
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...11/2361653.htm
As he bows out after three tempestuous years as Telstra's chief spin doctor,
Phil Burgess is writing a book about his Australian regulatory and political
adventures.
He is calling it, What's Up Down Under.
Dr Burgess, who is set to return to the US, says Australians deserve the
truth about Telstra, which he still believes is hamstrung by what he calls
"moonshine regulation."
A big part of the Phil Burgess history goes back to his appointment in 2005
when Telstra was in crisis.
At a private dinner he dropped what appeared to be a clanger - that he would
not recommend Telstra shares to his mother.
On the surface, it was hardly an endorsement. But Dr Burgess now says that
far from a slip up, it was a carefully workshopped message in Telstra's
campaign against regulation.
"We tried to do background papers, we tried to do background briefings, we
tried to have fact sheets put together and so on," he said.
"But the one thing that worked was when I said I wouldn't recommend the
shares to my mother.
"That got people to stand up and take notice and it was after that that we
began to get traction on looking at the issues that Telstra was facing and
how the Government had to change the way it was dealing with us."
So what seemed to be a gaffe, was actually something that was planned.
"When I went to dinner that night I knew that I was going to be talking
about analysts' reports that had been coming out," Dr Burgess said.
"I kept trying to say to people, as they tightened the regulatory nooses
they put us on more and more of a leash, we kept trying to say, 'look,
everybody around the world is saying that Telstra is being smothered by
regulation. Something has to change'."
'Economic moonshine'
During his regulatory battles, Dr Burgess has always preferred a head-on
attack, taking on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
chairman, Graeme Samuel, and former prime minister John Howard.
Even now, he is not letting up.
Speaking at a farewell lunch put on by the Australia Israel Chamber of
Commerce, Dr Burgess warned the new Government that proposals to break
Telstra up in a structural separation would breach the terms of the T3 sale.
"Well, let me just say flatly, it isn't going to happen because it's, in the
US we call it economic moonshine, you know, that kind of bogus whisky that
the hillbillies drink. I mean, it makes you crazy," he said.
Dr Burgess has some advice for the new Government and the ACCC as Telstra
lobbies to build a national broadband network on its own terms.
He says an obsession with the term "getting it right" is getting in the way
of the best possible alternative.
"That's the way your marriages work, right? Get it right, get it right, I
got it right, I'll get home on time, you know if I ... I now know, I know
after 30 years of being married I can be 10 minutes late and it doesn't make
any difference; 15 minutes, I'm in trouble," he said.
"But it took me a long time and a lot of grief to find that out. And that's
the way, that's the way the real world operates.
"Now the fact that people, that Graeme Samuel and the ACCC want to 'get it
right' means nothing gets done.
"Nothing gets done. Because you can never know if you're going to have it
right or not."
But now the right thing for Dr Burgess is to visit his mother in the United
States - the woman who helped him spin Telstra's strategy into 2005.
"My mother, who's 92, the one who did buy the stock," he said.
Before he goes, Dr Burgess is sharpening his barbs for one more farewell
event, but no doubt he will be keeping a few secrets in store for the book.
Based on a report for AM
Linear Mode
