Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek to add to an answer that I gave to the Senate today in question time concerning the hiring practices of the NBN Corporation. I have to apologise to Mr Quigley for misrepresenting the evidence that he gave in Senate estimates. As is common industry practice, senior roles at the NBN Corporation have been sourced through a combination of searches by recruitment firms and referrals. As Mr Quigley told Senate estimates, 40 per cent of NBN staff have been hired on a referral basis. I am advised that no-one has been hired without an interview—for example, as I have stated publicly, Mike Kaiser was interviewed three times before he was offered the position, twice by the head of human resources and once by Mr Quigley. So earlier today I misrepresented the actual hiring practices.