We like to pride ourselves on our culture of “mateship” and...

We like to pride ourselves on our culture of “mateship” and looking after people in a crisis - up to a point that is true.

These are things we should be proud of but...

We can also be myopic, insular and narrow minded - the tyranny of distance makes this a bigger risk for us than for many other countries.


However, what was the focus of much of the media coverage? In essence, the overpaid “amigos” were here to kill the company.

It was wrong and it misses the point. Running a huge (by both Australian and world standards), complex and difficult organisation is a tough job. But Sol hasn't shirked the challenge. He has thrived on it and Telstra, and Australia's telecommunications sector, is the better for it.

Many of the most virulent - I'd call them biased - critics in the media coveniently fail to mention that Telstra has easily outperformed the stocks of their own companies over the period Sol has been CEO. We have fared better than all of the top media and communications companies in Australia.

We live in a democracy where all legitimate views should be able to be heard. It is one of the traits Australian take for granted. But the “fourth estate” has a responsibility: to provide fair, unbiased and competent information in its reports. Opinion and commentary need to be separated from news reporting. The divide between the two are too often becoming blurred, as demonstrated in the past few days. Personal stances and subjective opinions are often woven into news reports, making it impossible to be classified as unbiased reporting of events. Media has an obligation to present the facts in a balanced way and let consumers make up their own mind.

Virtually from the day he arrived, Sol has been subject to highly organised, concerted and personalised attacks by certain media outlets. Coincidentally these are the same media outlets which Telstra competes against and is beating convincingly in the online space. We have had the disgraceful cartoons; the snide gossip columnists; and the almost daily falsehoods and untruths, which are never checked and never corrected.

These attacks culminated in the outrageous and quite deliberate attempt to give the public the false impression that Sol was leaving the company with an exit payment of $30 million or higher. Sol's exit payment was laid down in his contract when he arrived and his contract has been public for over three years. It is one year's base salary of $3 million.

Kate, what annoys me the most is the yawning gap between the real Sol and how he is misleadingly portrayed in the media.

As I said at the Press Club last week, Telstra is very lucky to have a truly global CEO of Sol's calibre. Because of Sol's vision, leadership and sheer hard work, Telstra is a company whose results are the envy of other telcos around the world. Without Sol's drive and global contacts we would never have been able to build Next G, the world's best mobile broadband network, in record time.
Just as importantly, Sol has transformed the culture at Telstra. We are a customer-focused company, like never before. We are proud to say that we work for Telstra. We know that, by working hard together, we can be world-leading and can achieve anything we want. We are beholden only to our customers and shareholders. If the media critics could just see the overwhelmingly positive reaction from employees at Sol's staff forums, maybe they would begin to understand the sense of spirit and self-belief that exists at Telstra.

Again Kate, I congratulate you. You are a true leader. You say it as you see it and you have my utmost respect for your courage and conviction.

Cheers
David Quilty