news The Australian Greens have backed calls for the Government to allow public input into the upcoming strategic review of the future of the National Broadband Network, as pressure intensifies upon Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to support the previous Labor administration’s all-fibre NBN policy.
New Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull, MP, several weeks held a media conference in which he announced the new NBN Co interim Statement of Expectations which will guide the company’s operations in the short term. In the conference Turnbull reiterated that the government will institute a strategic review of the NBN, to be conducted by the company itself and delivered within 60 days after a new board is appointed for NBN Co. With the appointment of NBN Co’s new interim board last week led by former Telstra and Optus chief executive Ziggy Switkowski, the 60 day deadline has been set.
The review is detailed in the Coalition’s NBN policy document (PDF), and is to set to estimate the cost and time to complete the NBN under its current model, as well as evaluating how other models could potentially reduce that cost and time to complete the rollout. Turnbull has said he had made it clear to NBN Co’s staff that he was “not interested in being given information that people may think will conform to my particular political agenda, whatever they may imagine that to be”.
“The goal of the strategic review, as you know, is to ascertain what it will really cost in dollars, what it will really take in years and months, to complete the project on the current specifications. And then, to assess, what options there are to reduce that cost and time, by using different techniques, different technologies,” the Minister said.
“As you know, as everyone knows, we’ve canvassed an example of that in our policy document, but let me say again, as I said to NBN staff today, I am, and the Government is, thoroughly open-minded, we are not dogmatic about technology; technology is not an ideological issue. We are completely agnostic about it. What we want to do is get the best result for taxpayers as soon as possible.”
Turnbull’s comments have been interpreted by some, including influential telecommunications analyst Paul Budde, as having opened the door for the Coalition Government to walk away from its predominantly fibre to the node-based NBN policy and to support Labor’s fibre to the premises model instead, as long as NBN Co can demonstrate that it can cut costs during the process.
However, in a statement today, the Greens called for the “public interest” to come first in the review. Greens communications spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam said that telecommunications users, advocacy groups and industry must be consulted and the review of the NBN made open and accountable to the public.
“Malcolm Turnbull has purged the board and might seek to remake the NBN in his own image, but the NBN is public infrastructure paid for by the Australian people – and the public have a right to know what is happening and to make their voices heard,” said Ludlam.
“Users, a cross section of the industry, and advocacy groups – including representatives of remote and regional communities who need better telecommunications services – should be involved and the review must be open and accountable to the public.”
“The last time the Coalition privatised a publicly-owned telecommunications enterprise the results were disastrous. We don’t want to see a repeat performance with the NBN. The Greens secured safeguards against privatising the NBN in order to protect consumers’ rights. It would be gravely mistaken for the review to operate under the baseless assumption that a privatised network will deliver what Australia needs. We also urge the review to be independent, and not bring the Coalition’s foregone conclusion that a Fibre To The Node network is a good idea.”
Ludlam pointed to an interview conducted by the Sydney Morning Herald with Google Australia’s new managing director, in which the executive urged the Government to consider the broader economic benefits of the NBN rollout, rather than viewing the NBN rollout as a cost. “The NBN is an investment, one that will deliver great returns if it is kept in public hands and listens to what the public want,” the Greens Senator said.
The Greens are not the first organisation to call for the NBN strategic review to be open to outside parties to comment on. Several weeks ago, digital rights lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia made much the same argument.
The organisation said at the time: “EFA argues that the best course of action is to let Australians have their say, fully and frankly, as part of a transparent strategic review that mirrors the openness of a Parliamentary Inquiry. Interest groups, institutions, corporations, and citizens should all be able to have their say. In short: don’t just inform us, ask us.”
The Greens and EFA have the right idea. I guess we’ll find out soon enough if Tony and Malcolm want to run Australia like north Korea soon enough though….
“The goal of the strategic review, as you know, is to ascertain what it will really cost in dollars, what it will really take in years and months, to complete the project on the current specifications.” — I thought The Turnbull had already determined it was going to cost $94b and be done around 2100…
/sigh
Turnbull said clearly before the election that the coalitions figures were estimates and should they win government, they would review NBNco’s claims re: costs and possibly do more FTTP if the lower cost estimates panned out… Of course he was going to propagandise the figures, he was trying to win government. Is anyone surprised that political parties (and don’t tell me it wasn’t both of them) are resorting to hyperbole to try and win an election?? |= \
I can understand being cynical, I’ve been deeply cynical of the ALP’s plans for the NBN since 2009 (and copped a lot of flak because of it incidentally), but I just don’t get why people aren’t vaguely encouraged by the fact the LNP are willing to look at this rather than dogmatically pursuing a policy none of you want…
Honestly, would you be happier if they said “F#ck FTTP, we’re doing FTTN no matter what!”? Based on the reaction to Simon Hackett’s proposals to cut the cost of FTTP to make it a more viable option, I sometimes suspect that demonising Turnbull and co. is far more important then, ya know, actually getting fibre…
Back on topic, yes, it would be good if the whole process is open and transparent with public input being accepted. I’m not holding my breath though. Ludlum is a significant centrist voice of reason in the senate and it will be a sad day if he doesn’t end up keeping his seat.
I intend to violently oppose anything that comes from the LNP until they actually put their money where their mouth is.
I’m deeply cynical that Turnbull is changing his tune on FTTP vs FTTN, and until I actually see actual real world results, I am automatically assuming this is just an attempt to “manage” the pro-FTTP camp, to make them settle down a bit.
Ever since Turnbull started to change what he was saying about the NBN, the Change.org petition has slowed considerably. My deepest, most cynical impulses tell me this is what he wanted, keep the petition away from his party for as long as possible. From now until that petition is submitted he can ignore it.
All he has to do is decide what to do with the NBN before that petition is submitted, he’s brought himself a significant quantity of time now by making some small flowery statements about being “Technology Agnostic”.
My suggestion would be to ignore what comes out of Turnbull’s mouth and keep lobbying him and all of his associates as HARD as we can, they’re pols, they pull fast ones on the general populace all the time.
“Honestly, would you be happier if they said “F#ck FTTP, we’re doing FTTN no matter what!”? ” — oh hell no. I want FttH as much as the next person, and raise questions about FttN where they are valid. That doesnt mean FttN should be dismissed out of hand though.
I’m being critical of Turnbull, because he has changed his stance so fast. He pushed the delays to the rollout, and what he claimed to be the true cost, and now has done a near complete 180 degree backflip now he’s in control.
So which is it? If Turnbull was right, and it was going to cost $94b, he’d have proof and it would have been the first thing presented. Instead, we have a review, and a bunch of backflips suggesting they might run out FttH after all.
So either the $94b claims were bullshit all along, or the review can have no other result but to show the claim to be true. Likewise with the rollout delays, whether you apply the 80 year or 10 year delay.
If the review shows FttH to be perfectly viable, and within a reasonable amount of the Liberal costings, then what does that say about Turnbull when he was in opposition? Recent reports are showing the cost for FttH is dropping faster and faster (now down to $1500 per premise), which I expect is behind his sudden change of heart.
@GongGav
‘I’m being critical of Turnbull, because he has changed his stance so fast.’
He hasn’t changed his stance from anything, I am not sure what you are referring to here.
‘ He pushed the delays to the rollout, and what he claimed to be the true cost, and now has done a near complete 180 degree backflip now he’s in control.’
180 degree backflip from what to what exactly?
‘and it was going to cost $94b, he’d have proof and it would have been the first thing presented. Instead, we have a review, and a bunch of backflips suggesting they might run out FttH after all.’
I don’t see anything that categorically states FTTN is out FTTH is in, and we are not going to see anything close to that sort of decision until first quarter 2014.
‘So either the $94b claims were bullshit all along, or the review can have no other result but to show the claim to be true’
Nothing I have read has categorically proves the $94b was BS, what I have read is that the Labor NBN required funding was increased twice, but that’s all ok and doesn’t qualify as BS at all?
‘If the review shows FttH to be perfectly viable, and within a reasonable amount of the Liberal costings, then what does that say about Turnbull when he was in opposition?’
No idea , what does the Labor NBN Co getting rollout targets massively wrong three times tell you? – perhaps someone else should have been overseeing it?
‘Recent reports are showing the cost for FttH is dropping faster and faster (now down to $1500 per premise), which I expect is behind his sudden change of heart.’
It still doesn’t come close to the lower cost of FTTN per premise where the bulk of the ‘to the house’ infrastructure is already laid and is just waiting to be hooked up to a street cabinet.
No idea , what does the Labor NBN Co getting rollout targets massively wrong three times tell you? – perhaps someone else should have been overseeing it?
How would “someone else overseeing them” have altered any of the outcomes with Telstra? In fact, there would have been the same results/delays using either FTTN or FTTP thanks to Telstra…
It doesnt matter whats put in front of you fibroid, you simply cant believe any evidence pointing to either Turnbull being full of shit, or FttN being a colossal waste of money.
Every single statement I made has been proven time and again, and you want it linked again? Sorry, not feeding the troll any more.
To me, you bring nothing to the debate. Move along, you’ve managed to annoy me enough that if I get banned for things I say about you, I just dont care any more.
I’ll have by FttH. I’ve worked enough IT jobs, seen enough economic information, and have access to enough experts to know you have no idea what you’re talking about. Little tip, a sibling of mine helped develop both ADSL2 and VOIP, and lectures on these things around the world. I’ve said before that I think I’ll believe them before I believe an anonymous troll like yourself.
As you wont believe me no matter whats put in front of you, I simply dont care about you or your opinion. As you cant possibly imagine yourself to be wrong, it doesnt matter anyway.
I’ll leave you with this. Every time Turnbull and Abbott made comments about the NBN, they preached like gospel that it would be 10 years late, and cost $94b. The $44b cost worked out to be something like $2400 per premise, and recent evidence shows that number will be closer to $1500, or a near 40% drop in cost.
So now you change your stance to be that “its still cheaper to do FttN”. Lets just roll out dialup, shall we? That costs a buck fifty, cheapest option of the lot. We dont need any faster, it’ll get there eventually.
Likewise, even when you acknowledge that delays have been outside NBN Co’s control, you still cant bring yourself to admit that the resulting delays are essentially minor. You go back to some incredibly minor point of a plan that changes at the very time it should be changing.
Dont bother replying.
“I’m being critical of Turnbull, because he has changed his stance so fast. He pushed the delays to the rollout, and what he claimed to be the true cost, and now has done a near complete 180 degree backflip now he’s in control.”
And..?
You’re pissed off because a politician (if you take him at face value) is willing to modify is policy because of evidence?
Huh? That doesn’t make sense. I would have thought an evidence based approach where the final conclusion is driven by actual evidence (rather than ideology) was a good thing… Rather than just digging the heels in. I stand by my first statement, I think you want Turnbull to say “F#ck FTTP” just so you can complain about it…
“So which is it? If Turnbull was right, and it was going to cost $94b, he’d have proof and it would have been the first thing presented. Instead, we have a review, and a bunch of backflips suggesting they might run out FttH after all.”
Why does it matter now? Oh you can go on complaining about it but it’s kind of irrelevant, they won the election. Politicians play fast and loose with the truth, wow, that’s a shocker… = |
“If the review shows FttH to be perfectly viable, and within a reasonable amount of the Liberal costings, then what does that say about Turnbull when he was in opposition?”
That he was an effective opposition minister that spun a possibility in to a convincing argument? Or perhaps it didn’t matter either way as the ALP leadership essentially got itself voted out due to it’s squabbles.
The result is academic, he’s the new comms minister and with a good chance of solid senate support, he’s the guy that will need to be satisfied before he commits to FTTP.
“Recent reports are showing the cost for FttH is dropping faster and faster (now down to $1500 per premise), which I expect is behind his sudden change of heart.”
I swear, if he walked up to you and personally offered to dig the trench to lay fibre to your home right now, you’d still find something to complain about… /eyeroll
“Users, a cross section of the industry, and advocacy groups – including representatives of remote and regional communities who need better telecommunications services – should be involved and the review must be open and accountable to the public.”
So this process for the Coalition NBN evaluation needs to be much more open and have input across many sectors, unlike how the Labor decision making process for their NBN based on FTTP was done?
And FTTN and Internet filtering and…
Let’s not split partisan hairs here though, both parties call for greater transparency when in opposition, both promise more transparency just prior to elections, neither really deliver when they win. The only thing that apparently matters is taking government, the principles die pretty fast after that point.
The fact that Turnbull is even allowing the chance of the ALP policy standing is a refreshing change though. He’s repeatedly on record saying that they are all about cost and the technology is a secondary concern. FTTP hopefuls better hope that NBNco’s figures were on the mark I guess.
Well the NBN Co’s figures were not on the mark, all of that was known well before the election, the last post election Business plan proved that they will still not on the mark.
With respect, the the current timeframes really aren’t going to be the only deciding factor for a review board, worth half it’s salt.
Turnbull might be a bit arrogant, but he’s not a fool.
So fibroid, to paraphrase “they didn’t (but did) so we shouldn’t (but are)”.
Any review that’s even remotely based on scruitable research isn’t going to recommend rolling back to copper if it’s just not cheaper or faster to deploy. Any more than it would recommend continuing to spend on fibre if it was actually an inferior technology and or had no chance of scaling or being deployable in timeframes outside of glacial.
Turnbull prattles on about being “technology agnostic”. The review will confirm just how agnostic Turnbull can be.
As always, I look forward to the continual source of amusement, thanks to your dedicated evangelism of whatever it is that Turnbull chooses to believe in, each week it changes.
I still don’t know what has changed from Coalition policy published in April, the only real activity is that the Labor rollout continues on under existing build contracts, just like the Coalition said it would.
The pro Labor NBN supporters that constantly shouted loud and often that the Coalition would shut down the FTTP rollout as soon as they got into power have gone very quiet on that one.
I really don’t know what you are all whinging about anyway, the longer it takes for the Coalition to make a decision the longer the Labor planned FTTP rollout continues on unabated, that’s good is it not?
Turnbull just stated the Tasmanian rollout was “halted” and there was “nothing he could do”.
Even though that’s a gross misrepresentation of fact, it is a very clear statement of what the Minister believes.
If the Minister for Internets “can’t do anything” – what use is he in the portfolio?
“The pro Labor NBN supporters that constantly shouted loud and often that the Coalition would shut down the FTTP rollout as soon as they got into power have gone very quiet on that one.”
Seems like they were very quiet before the election too as I hadn’t seen them claim that. There must have been a few who did, though I’d hardly say the majority, it sounds more like the conspiracy theorists.
“the longer it takes for the Coalition to make a decision the longer the Labor planned FTTP rollout continues on unabated, that’s good is it not”
Very true, if it gets delayed to say 2016, it should be blindingly obvious that growth in data usage won’t stop as Malcolm “only has to think a bit and it’s obvious it won’t grow” Turnbull claim it will.
Better do nothing now and rollout a lasting solution than waste tens of billions on a 4-6 year bandaid.
I suspect based on the thoughts of a couple of commentators so far that this is going to be a wasted effort but here goes …
While I don’t deny anybody their right to be cynical about politics in Australia, to leave an argument at ‘what did you expect of a politician?’ or ‘we should be grateful that he’s not really as idiotic as we thought he might be’ is not the way I wish my politics to be run.
It comes down to integrity and / or competency. Malcolm was absolute resolute in his belief of the certainty of his numbers. Never did he qualify to the public the exact nature and context of his assumptions and they are quite different to what we are hearing now. The present situation suggests that his numbers pre-election were never more than back of the napkin estimates yet he and the other coalition spokespeople lambasted any FTTP supporters for wasteful profligacy and made constant suggestions that their decision making was corrupted by their desires to download movies and porn – not a desire to build long lasting national infrastructure.
So the question is, should we accept that our politicians ‘play hard’ to get into office and then they are allowed flexibility to do what they should do – or – do we expect our politicians to be honest both in opposition and in government?
There is a reason I enjoy reading Delimiter and based on Renai’s principles I think the answer to the previous question is self evident.
If it turns out that FTTN isn’t a justifiably better solution, even if FTTP continues MT and others need to be held to account for their actions because they were either deceitful or grossly incompetent.
While I’m not a Labor supporter, here’s a tip for them. Simply keep a diary of what this government does and roll it out at the next election.
“The present situation suggests that his numbers pre-election were never more than back of the napkin estimates yet he and the other coalition spokespeople…:
Yes, been saying that all along. Some people probably still think Turnbull actually research a plan thorough and really had one.
“do we expect our politicians to be honest both in opposition and in government?”
I’d expect this. But when 80% or more of the public seem easily fool by lies, which the MSM seems to be too busy to fact check, it is natural selection, the more dishonest the politician, the more successful he is. Of course any concerted media campaign can destroy a politician on a small point. eg. MSN fury over taxi fares, you Abbott spent more on non government business but is allowed to pay it back without question. Actually, he better be careful. The Libs are letting the media know so little that they when they need news they may be like a dog on a bone with some of his dirt, just to get news.
“So the question is, should we accept that our politicians ‘play hard’ to get into office and then they are allowed flexibility to do what they should do – or – do we expect our politicians to be honest both in opposition and in government?”
This isn’t really a question — politicians should be honest all the time.
‘play hard’?
Why not be honest and call it what it was, ‘lie’…as you yourself indicate when you continue with “do we expect our politicians to be honest both in opposition and in government” in your comment.
And yes, I expect our politicians to always inform their electors with the truth, otherwise they are corrupt and should be romoved.
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