Quigley quits NBN, Housing finance rises, but below expectations: Midday Roundup

Mike Quigley has announced this morning he is quitting as head of the company in charge of building the National Broadband Network.

Quigley is retiring from corporate life after four years leading the controversial rollout of the NBN.

“My job was to lay the foundations for the NBN for the next 30 years. That job is largely complete. NBN Co is now a well-established wholesale telecommunications company with a nationwide workforce,” he said in a statement.

“The role of the next CEO will be to build on these foundations.

“The ramp-up in construction and the news last week that the company had passed more than 200,000 premises with fibre gives me further confidence that the NBN build can be delivered by 2021 in line with the projections in the company’s corporate plan,” Quigley said.

Following the announcement, NBN Co chairman Siobhan McKenna praised Quigley’s work, as did Communications Minister Anthony Albanese and Finance Minister Penny Wong.

The Labor Party’s NBN plan is projected to cost $44 billion dollars and will be completed by 2021.

Housing finance rises, but below expectations

Demand for home loans rose during May, but at a rate lower than expected by economists, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The figures show the number of home loans granted rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.8% to 49,636. In April, this number was 48,475.

A survey conducted by Bloomberg predicted the number of housing finance commitments to increase by 2.2% in May.

The value of commitments rose by a seasonally adjusted 2% to $23.4 billion

Shares up on open

Aussie shares opened higher this morning, taking lead from the Dow Jones, despite Australia’s unemployment rate rising yesterday.

The S&P/ASX200 index soared about the 5000 mark, up 37.3 points to 5003 at midday. Last night the Dow Jones closed 1.11% higher overnight, up 169.26 points to 15,460.92.

All the major industries were up, with the materials sector up 201.5 points to 9,154.9 and consumer staples up 128 to 9,789.4.