Former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski was confirmed as leader of a new three-person board to oversee Australia's largest infrastructure project. Dr Switkowski, who replaces outgoing chairwoman Siobhan McKenna, will be joined by current NBN Co directors Kerry Schott and Alison Lansley. Malcolm Turnbull Credit:Rob Homer In an opinion piece published in Friday's Australian Financial Review, Mr Orgill reveals his discomfort with the political handling of the national broadband network. "Arriving on the board last September, I was struck by the dysfunctional nature of various NBN operational aspects," Mr Orgill writes. The Labor government, he argues, should have asked the Productivity Commission to do a cost-benefit analysis before they gave the rollout of the $37.4 billion network the green light.

There were also, Mr Orgill writes, "serious issues in the evolution and operational performance of NBN". Brad Orgill resisted Malcolm Turnbull's demands that NBN Co board members resign. Credit:Louie Douvis "Of most concern has been the poor performance of the local network rollout, the last fibre piece connecting existing homes. "These delays have been unacceptable.'' But the Coalition did not escape criticism, with Mr Orgill writing of his "weariness at politics overshadowing fair process".

Over the past three years in opposition Mr Turnbull has attacked the NBN Co board for cost blowouts and timetable delays, and publicly criticised the outgoing CEO Mike Quigley. Mr Orgill believes Mr Turnbull sacked him for ideological reasons, in particular for his "public advocacy of the Greens' environmental and social policies". "That he declined to even meet with the board before demanding all to resign was disappointing," Mr Orgill said. "I had signed up in good faith to a three-year term; this approach rekindled memories of an earlier Coalition agenda to eliminate unfair dismissal provisions." Mr Orgill was one of three late-2012 appointments to the NBN Co board and was the only one of the three not invited to continue. Mr Turnbull decided to keep Ms Schott and Ms Lansley on the board, partly for the sake of "continuity".

Meanwhile, Mr Quigley has taken a parting swipe at some contractors building the high-speed network, blaming them for delays that have plagued the project. The outgoing NBN Co chief executive also insisted the project was largely on budget and long-term revenue projections for the network remain ''achievable''. ''It is certainly true that some of our delivery partners have not been able to scale their activities as quickly as we had hoped and this part of the rollout is behind where we would like it to be,'' Mr Quigley wrote in a memo to staff. Mr Quigley stood down on Thursday after flagging his retirement earlier this year. Mr Quigley gave some backing to the Coalition's scaled-back NBN proposal, saying fibre-to-the-node would allow the project to be built ''more quickly and at less cost to the taxpayer''.

Mr Turnbull has already instructed the NBN to start testing copper-based broadband technologies. The Coalition's policy involves piggybacking on copper telephone wires rather than running fibre-optic cables to homes and businesses. with Eric Johnston