Members of the public use Telstra pay phones
© AFP/File William West

WELLINGTON (AFP) - In a message to staff which was onpassed to several newspapers, chief executive Allan Freeth said TelstraClear was facing a loss of seven million New Zealand dollars (4.8 million US) rather than the 14.8 million dollar profit expected by its Australian parent.

"Right now, we are on a trajectory to disaster ... we are being out-marketed, out-smarted and out-gunned in the marketplace.

"We are too slow in reacting and we lack the killer instinct," Freeth said, signing off the email with a wish for staff "to enjoy Christmas".

Freeth said staff should take their lead from the characters in Quentin Tarantino movies.

"Oh yes, we lack the killer instinct -- we are too tame, too lame and too timid to call ourselves a challenger.

"A challenger winds their opposition, kicks them down to the ground, and then makes them bleed like something from a Quentin Tarantino movie and then finishes them off - fast."

Freeth told the New Zealand Herald he did not back off from any of the sentiments.

The message was a set of notes he used to speak to a group of senior managers in TelstraClear, later made available to all staff so they could get a hint of his views.

Head office was fully aware of the firm's performance, he said.

Freeth told The Dominion Post newspaper that the figures were a worst-case-scenario of where the company could end up.

He said he was disappointed that a member of staff had chosen to leak the e-mail but would not start a witch hunt.

TelstraClear was committed to New Zealand where the country's largest listed company, Telecom Corp, was being opened up to competition, he said.

©AFP