Australian Government Nominates Geoff Cousins To Telstra Board

MELBOURNE -(Dow Jones)- The Australian Government Friday nominated Geoff Cousins as a director of Telstra, the nation's largest telecommunications company.

The government, which holds 51.8% of the stock in Melbourne-based Telstra, will support Cousins' nomination at the company's annual meeting on Nov. 14, it said in a statement.

"With Telstra being transformed from a telecommunications company to a media communications company, Mr. Cousins is an ideal board candidate, with board experience across the telecommunications, broadcasting and advertising sectors," it said.

Cousins was previously chief executive of Optus Vision, the pay TV unit of Australia's second-largest telecommunications company.

He has also has served on the boards of Publishing & Broadcasting and Seven Network, the nation's two largest TV broadcasters and Insurance Australia Group.

Canberra plans to offload its Telstra shares later this year, with more than two billion shares to be sold to retail and institutional shareholders, currently valued at about A$8 billion. Another parcel of more than four billion shares will be held by the government's arms-length Future Fund.

-By Andrew Harrison, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-3-9671-4323; andrew.harrison@dowjones.com

-Edited by Ian Pemberton

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 22nd September 2006