Crikey reporter Sophie Black writes:




Henry Bosch,
former Chairman of the National Companies and Securities Commission and
a former Chairman of the Working Group on Corporate Practices and
Conduct, told Crikey that Howard’s “talk up Telstra” comment was
“perfectly alright.”

“Indeed, it’s what I would expect,” said
Henry. “All CEOs and company chairman put as good a gloss on their
companies as they can and as a shareholder I would want them to…All
of those sorts of expressions are absolutely commonplace in analyst
briefings and media briefings.”

“I’ve seen nothing that suggests
that Howard was meaning that the company should provide false
information.” Having said that, added Henry, “the nexus” in which there
are “special obligations between the government and Telstra” must be
broken.

Henry also took the opportunity to take a shot
at Telstra’s perceived obligation to rural Australia – “as a customer
of Telstra and a shareholder of Telstra I am offended by the idea that
I should subsidise rural Australia,” he said. “Many unwise things are
done in democracies in order to bring interest groups onside, and there
are many accomplished blackmailers among the interest groups, including
the senators of the National Party… They (rural customers) want the
most up to date advanced service but they don’t want to pay the cost of
providing that, they want me to pay and I don’t want to do it.”