Telstra's wholesale group managing director Kate McKenzie had been scheduled to put forward Telstra's position regarding the regulatory framework of the NBN, and according to Budde her spot has now been filled by former Telstra employee David Havyatt.

"David is an absolute stalwart. He has been in the industry for 23 years, he has worked for Telstra and knows them inside out... to be honest I think with David there you will get a more honest, better view of what the real issues for Telstra are than if it was somebody from Telstra," he said.

The CCC's executive director David Forman also levelled criticism at Telstra in the media statement released yesterday, stating that Telstra had agreed to present at the event months in advance with full knowledge of the conference schedule.

"Clearly, it knows that the independent commercial conference organisers have sold sponsorship and tickets on the basis that Telstra was on the program," he said. "Telstra, let's remember, for three years justified its abusive language about the government, the regulator, the courts and competitors by saying it wanted to create a 'debate'. Yet faced with critics, it first tries to silence them, and then walks away from the opportunity to debate. Telstra is acting the only way it knows how -- by using its market power to try to force people to do what Telstra wants," he said.

But Budde brought the which bucked international trends by dictating the of the NBN but left the regulatory framework up to the industry.