This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The executive appointed by Malcolm Turnbull to run NBN Co appears likely to be called as a witness in legal actions now under way in the US, flowing from one of the worst utility disasters in the country’s history.

Legal actions have begun in San Francisco involving Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), a company Bill Morrow joined in 2006 as chief operating officer, before becoming chief executive a year later. Morrow left PG&E in September 2008.

Morrow was appointed to run Australia’s largest infrastructure project, the NBN roll out, in December 2013, by the then communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

NBN Co confirmed on Wednesday that Morrow expected to be called as a witness in the PG&E proceedings in the US, which are expected to last between six and eight weeks.

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According to US media reports, PG&E faces 13 criminal counts in the trial, including 12 charges the gas utility violated safety regulations and one charge of obstruction. The company has pleaded not guilty.

PG&E is facing various legal actions relating to pipeline explosions in 2008 and 2010. The San Bruno explosion killed eight people and destroyed or damaged more than 100 homes.

The two explosions occurred after Morrow left PG&E and NBN Co said on Wednesday he is not named in the current case being heard in San Francisco. His only involvement is as a witness.

Various detailed investigations in the US have been critical of the company’s priorities, practices and decision-making over a period spanning more than a decade, including the two years when Morrow was in key executive positions at the utility.

A California Public Utilities Commission report alleged that $100m was diverted by PG&E from safety and pipeline maintenance over 15 years. It suggested maintenance spending was under significant pressure in 2008 and in the two years immediately after Morrow’s departure.

“Gas safety funding was heavily constrained in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 budget process,” says an audit undertaken by Overland Consulting for the CPUC.

“Integrity management and maintenance project budgets were viewed as discretionary funding that could be reduced to meet the overall budget targets set by executive management.”

On Wednesday an NBN spokeswoman issued a short statement about the US legal proceedings.

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“Mr Morrow is awaiting direction from the court and will appear as a witness in the US court case, if required,” she said. “Bill has not been named as a party to the proceedings, he is attending only as a witness. As the matter is currently before the court, it’s not appropriate for us to comment further.”

The developments in the US once again thrust the NBN into the heat of the Australian election campaign.

On Wednesday Fairfax Media revealed the NBN’s chairman, Ziggy Switkowski, breached caretaker conventions by attacking whistleblowing in a published opinion piece.

The revelation follows contentious police raids undertaken earlier in the campaign after a succession of leaks from the organisation placing questions marks over the pace and costs associated with the NBN roll out.

Martin Parkinson, the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, has confirmed that NBN management gave an advance draft of Switkowski’s opinion piece to the Department of Communications and the Arts, which in turn sought and received advice from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that the publication of the article would not be consistent with the established practices associated with the caretaker conventions.

Parkinson says the view was “strongly conveyed” to the NBN management that the conventions applied to its chairman and its chief executive, and he knows that view was passed to Switkowski. But Switkowski wilfully ignored that advice by publishing the piece.

“In my judgment some of the comments in the opinion piece are not consistent with established practices around the caretaker conventions, which are directed at protecting the apolitical nature of government bodies and preventing controversies about the role of those bodies distracting attention from the substantive issues in the election campaign,” Parkinson wrote in a letter to Labor’s finance spokesman, Tony Burke. “I have conveyed this view directly to Dr Switkowski.”

Labor had complained to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that Switkowski’s opinion piece was a “clear breach” of the caretaker conventions. They also complained that Switkowski had used his role as NBN chairman “to run a contestable script to the specific advantage of the prime minister and the Liberal party”.

Campaigning in Perth on Wednesday, the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, was critical of Switkowski.

“Australia’s internet speeds have seen a slip from 30th to 60th and we now have the NBN Co doing everything they can to cover up the facts,” the Labor leader said. “I think, for an otherwise respected businessman, Dr Switkowski, I think this is a shameful breach. Yet again NBN Co are doubling down on the cover-up, the denial.”

On Wednesday afternoon, an NBN spokeswoman defended Switkowski’s decision to publish his opinion piece, saying it had to be done to protect the company’s reputation.

“Any accusation that the company’s staff, management, its board and (by implication) its shareholder departments have conspired to keep large cost increases secret from the Australian people is not only plainly and demonstrably false, but is a serious accusation in light of the Corporations act,” the spokeswoman said.

“This is obviously not acceptable and the opinion piece addressed the allegations in a manner commensurate with the mode in which they were made; that is, publicly in the national media.”