Former comms minister Michael Lee to chair Comms Alliance

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 11 November 2009 08:44

IT Industry - Strategy

Michael Lee, a communications minister in the Labor Government, has been appointed chair of Communications Alliance, effective from 1 January 2010. He will replace Neville Stevens who is stepping down after seven years in the post.
 

Comms Alliance is also on the look out for a new CEO. The incumbent, Anne Hurley, announced in August that she would step down in 2010. Her exact departure date was to be agreed with the board and was expected to be in the first quarter of 2010.

Lee is currently chairman of the board of the NSW TAFE Commission Board and a director of Country Energy, MAp Airports, DUET (Diversified Utilities and Energy Trusts) and Superpartners Pty Limited.

From 1984-2001 he was the Federal Member for Dobell on the NSW Central Coast and held the position of minister for communications and the arts in the Labor Government of Paul Keating from 1994-1996. He was also chairman of the House of Representatives Industry, Science and Technology Committee from 1990-1993.

He has also been minister for tourism and minister for resources and was responsible for the health and education portfolios as shadow minister. More recently, he was a City of Sydney councillor from 2004-2008.

As communications minister Lee is probably best remembered for doing nothing while Optus and Telstra chased each other down the same streets with their HFC rollouts. (Lee predicted they would behave "sensibly and rationally" and roll out in non-overlapping areas).

He also presided over the development of the ALP's legislation designed to end the Optus/Telstra duopoly, set out in the 1994 issues paper 'Beyond the Duopoly: Australian Telecommunications Policy and Regulation.' The ALP lost power in 1996 before the legislation could be enacted and the draft was picked up and extensively modified by the incoming Howard Government.