news The Opposition has demanded that the Government release a full business plan for its heavily revised version of the National Broadband Network.
In a statement, Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare alleged it had been three years since a “full” business case for the project was last released.
“On 8 August 2012, NBN Co released its 2012-15 Corporate Plan, containing financial and deployment forecasts until 2040,” said Clare. “This followed the release of NBN Co’s initial 2011-14 Corporate Plan in December 2010.”
In comparison, said Clare, all the Abbott Government had released so far was “a heavily redacted Strategic Review” and a “threadbare 2014-17 Corporate Plan which simply repeated the headline assumptions from the Strategic Review”.
Clare alleged that that since the Strategic Review was released in December 2013, finalisation of nbn’s deal with Telstra had been delayed by a year, IT costs to implement the Coalition’s Multi Technology Mix approach had blown out by approximately $1 billion and the scale rollout of Fibre-to-the-Node (which Clare said the Coalition promised would begin by mid-2014), had still not commenced.
“The HFC rollout is severely behind schedule,” Clare added, “with NBN Co to meet only a fraction of its target to connect 2.61 million premises by December 2016. The NBN is rolling out slower than Malcolm Turnbull promised, and it is more expensive than he promised. Yet, nearly two years into Malcolm Turnbull’s tenure as Communications Minister, he has still not released a full business plan.”
Clare pointed out that in Opposition, Turnbull had been a strong voice calling for the Labor Government of the day to be transparent and release business cases relating to the NBN project.
“In 2010, Malcolm Turnbull introduced a private members bill demanding that the Government release NBN Co’s business case,” said Clare. “In 2013, after the previous Government had released NBN Co’s 2011 and 2012 Corporate Plans, the demands kept coming. In 2013, Malcolm Turnbull even criticised the process of submitting draft Corporate Plans to Government.”
“Malcolm Turnbull’s time is up. The Australian public deserve to know how much his second-rate network will cost, and how long it will take to build.”
In June, the Senate passed a motion ordering Turnbull and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann to release “a complete and unredacted copy” of nbn’s latest corporate plan, as prepared by the company itself, as well as a complete and unredacted copy of the 2014-2017 nbn corporate plan. In addition, the Senate also ordered the Ministers to hand over an unredacted copy of the nbn Strategic Review.
However, Turnbull and Cormann evaded the Senate order — stating, among other arguments — that the most recent corporate plan had not yet been completed and was still in draft form. Turnbull has been considering a draft of nbn’s latest corporate plan since at least April this year.
Delimiter has invited Minister Turnbull to respond to Clare’s statement.
opinion/analysis
I would make several points in regard to Clare’s statement this morning.
Firstly, yes, of course, Minister Turnbull should release the nbn Corporate Plan — immediately. Not only would it be hypocritical of him to hold onto it indefinitely, given his previous stance on this exact same matter in Opposition, but it’s the right thing to do. The NBN is an important project and the public deserves to know what’s happening with respect to it. Secondly, the Minister has had the plan since April, which is long enough to have gone through it with a fine tooth comb. Enough is enough. It’s time to get this document out there.
However, I would also note that Labor is also being hypocritical about this matter. During the tenure of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, the Coalition and the Greens had to drag this exact same document out of Labor. And there are plenty of NBN-related documents which Labor has never released and is in fact still hanging onto.
Furthermore, Labor appears to believe it will find some kind of ‘smoking gun’ relating to the failure of the Coalition’s MTM vision if it is able to go through the new nbn corporate plan itself. As Senator Conroy and Clare would be aware, it is unlikely that this will happen. The plan will have been massaged to exclude any ‘gotcha’ moments.
What we end up with is a somewhat farcical interchange between the Government and the Opposition. Both are being hypocritical about this matter. Meanwhile the Australian public is not getting — and will not get — the transparency with regard to the NBN project that it deserves. Just another day in Canberra.
In a general sense, many people, including myself, are very uneasy about the ongoing process where government business enterprises such as nbn submit drafts of their corporate plans to their minister, and then incorporate feedback after a lengthy consideration period. This smacks of a lack of independence on the part of GBEs and of political interference, and there are strong arguments that the practice should be stopped. I believe GBE corporate plans should be created by GBEs, independent of the political process — and then published on their websites. If Ministers are concerned, they have many other opportunities — including writing Statements of Expectation — to direct GBEs on how to conduct their operations.
Image credit: Parliamentary Broadcasting
I wish I knew who Jason Clare was. Apparently he is the Shadow Communications Minister but we haven’t heard a peep from him in 3 years. Conroy is still doing a better job.
Seriously though I’d like to see the business plan too, many want to see the direction GimpCo is heading with their “MTM” “plan”
I thought you were being serious Hubert. It’s a valid point – Labor has been practically silent on the NBN with the exception of Conroy. What, precisely, has Jason Clare been doing with his time the past two years?
Yes, I was being serious but I just find the situation amusing. I mean before 2013 every time there was an NBN announcement of some kind we had Turnbull on the ABC giving his opinion on the matter and Conroy would respond etc. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard Turnbull even mention Jason Clare because he is practically invisible. He should be doing his job, giving Turnbull and the coalition a hard time just as they did, but all the heavy lifting is still been done by Conroy during the Senate Committees.
Clare was probably rearing to critique the quality of the (non test site) FTTN rollout and expected it to be in full swing a year ago but is left waiting for something of significance to happen so he can actually comment :)
You could wear red underpants and not have got any attention over the last few weeks battling against the usual mayhem of Q & A and Bronwyn Bishop’s travelling habits.
Have they been silent or is it that an anti-FttP MSM have just been suppressing…?
As Hubert alludes to, previously there were almost daily NBN articles, now it’s weekly or monthly.
Perhaps it’s simply, the reports previously were akin to FttP – swift and constant, whereas now the reports are akin to MTM – slow and antiquated.
;)
@UninvitedGuest For your information Jason Clare and many others has been working EXTREMELY hard on their parliamentary privileges.
Sorry Renei. Aren’t you the guy who used to be the media adviser for Scott Ludlam?
Where’s your declaration of a conflict of interest here?
Are you a troll? You sound like one.
Go look up the top there, see those links that say “About” and “Code of Ethics” and “Statement of Principals”? Try clicking on one and reading instead of making baseless accusations of bias.
For those of us who came in a little late to this (i.e. that’s you CSM) I’d advise you to check Delimiter’s history when Labor was in government, and consequently before Renai ever stepped anywhere near Scott Ludlam. Then perhaps you might state that he had a “conflict of interest” the other way … if you were to point your paranoia consistently.
Why is it that people think that once you agree with a specific point, that stated opinion are forever nailed to some sort of cross? People can change their minds CSM, particularly as more information comes to light. It’s called the human condition … get used to it (unless you’re a lawyer, the courts have very little sympathy for that).
Are they the same “code of ethics” and “statement of principals” when Renai was bias towards Malcolm Turnbull.
As one of those who criticised him for his pro-Turnbull stance at the time, I feel that he has more than adequately explained his failures there and used them as an opportunity to take a more sceptical position with regard to political statements. He realised his mistake, admitted it publicly and then found a position that better matched the new information he had. If our politicians could learn this behaviour we’d have a freer, fairer and damn sight more efficient society.
This seems entirely consistent with the code of ethics and stated principles (it’s not a school headmaster) as stated by Renai in the header. Frankly criticizing him for this is bizarre.
To be fair MikeK, Renai did apologise and actually admit to being wrong about Mal…
http://delimiter.com.au/2013/12/12/please-accept-apologies-wrong-turnbull/
Renai come home all is forgiven.
:)
Of course Labor are being hypocritical, just as the current Liberal Govt are. It’s a by-product of the political system. But it does not detract from the motivation of the Opposition no matter which persuasion, that being trying to find the means to hold the Govt of the day to account.
I also very much doubt that Labor expect to find a smoking gun. Lots of ammunition perhaps but no gun ;) After all, the info is submitted to the Govt before it’s released publicly.
So whether it is farcical or hypocritical by either party is secondary to the essential issue – that of disclosure of information. It is only by having access to information can we hold our govt to account. Without it we are nothing more than mushrooms.
And I agree wholeheartedly regarding your reservations about submissions of GBE draft corporate plans to the Govt. Far too much latitude for massaging.
Firstly, the Senate motion shouldn’t have asked for an unredacted Corporate Plan. That’s unrealistic.
Secondly, in my opinion, Labor’s history on NBN transparency is not the most important issue here (although I completely understand why someone would bring this up).
What is more important is that a Corporate Plan (redacted by necessity) be released immediately.
The Australian taxpayer deserves it.
“Firstly, the Senate motion shouldn’t have asked for an unredacted Corporate Plan. That’s unrealistic.”
Seriously, why not?
Is there a another national broadband network that they need to be protected from competing with?
Commercial in confidence is now used to hide mistakes – it has nothing to do with legitimate business process.
“Commercial in confidence is now used to hide mistakes – it has nothing to do with legitimate business process.”
Even if you were right the government knows that everybody else disagrees with you so that gives Turnbull an excuse to sit on the Corporate Plan all day long.
Ask for too much and you may end up getting nothing.
How’s about getting something regardless of what is asked for? Y’know … all in the name of “transparency”.
I have yet to see large scale social media anger because the Coalition hasn’t released concrete detail on the MTM’s financial viability.
That’s because the opposition is not rousing the public’s interest.
This is only because Labor now realises the NBN was a big mistake and that billions of taxpayer dollars may be lost.
“I have yet to see large scale social media anger because the Coalition hasn’t released concrete detail on the MTM’s financial viability.”
Anger is not a requirement to deliver “transparency” when it was promised.
“That’s because the opposition is not rousing the public’s interest.”
Public interest is not a requirement to deliver “transparency” when it was promised.
“This is only because Labor now realises the NBN was a big mistake and that billions of taxpayer dollars may be lost.”
You have a hotline to the Labor party?
Transparency? Opposition?
From the Labor National Party?
Really?
“We can’t release the redacted corporate plan because we were asked for the unredacted plan”. You must be kidding.
+1
Pedantics mucho
“Ask for too much and you may end up getting nothing.”
I wish I could use this line everytime I get an electricity bill.
“I have yet to see large scale social media anger because the Coalition hasn’t released concrete detail on the MTM’s financial viability.”
“This is only because Labor now realises the NBN was a big mistake and that billions of taxpayer dollars may be lost”
Both nonsense arguments. Neither excuses the coalition from their obligation to be transparent.
Indeed Hubert,
It’s like OMG deja vu with some of these comments eh?
I’m sorry KingForce, but that is BS, unredacted Corporate Plans have been released in the past so there is no excuse for redactions.
The only reason for redactions is to hide embarrassing information and that is no excuse.
Completely agree Stephen. Commercial in confidence should not be able to be used where public money is involved, particularly at such a meta level. Seriously, how many redactions were there in the NBN Co corporate plans released under Labor?
What could possibly be in the corporate plan that needs to be redacted ?
.. and if there is something, how can it take 4 months to redact it ?
Nothing legitimate. But it allows them to delay to the point that by the time it is released they can claim that it is ‘out of date’ anyway. The mainstream media will pay little attention because it’s complex, unexciting, unsexy and so out of date it’s growing mould. In the 24 hour news cycle people expect up-to-the-minute stories, not news so old it is no longer contemporary or relevant.
My guess is that it’s being delayed in the expectation of an early election in which case it will get buried until afterward by the fresh noise. Malcolm is trying to run a tight ship because a few missteps by other key players and one of Australia’s biggest egos may finally get that shot at prime ministership that has eluded him thus far.
So if evidence were to start coming out to paint a picture that Malcolm got just about every call of his on the NBN wrong, that just wouldn’t do. The political solution is to rewrite the past and whitewash every thing that can be whited. If you finally become prime minister, then you have more important things to worry about and you could always say you were following party policy in implementing the NBN.
I think the information we’re likely not to see is:
* Massively underestimated predicted data requirements of the population. Apparently the internet is more than a few geeks with piracy and porn addictions.
* Cost blowouts in the implementation of the administration systems of NBN. (Telstra says thank you for paying them for the privelege of taking that mess off their hands)
*Delays on every change Malcolm has insisted was necessary to do it faster. Ironically, the thing that has outperformed is the original fibre rollout.
*Overestimating of costs of the original fibre rollout.
*The switch from capital costs to operational costs within the whole project. Instead of a ~$50b project with relatively low overheads we have a ~$50b project with very large overheads. There are probably numbers lurking about that would show that by 2030 Malcolms terrible mess will have spent twice as much to achieve less than what was originally envisaged.
Malcolm and his ego need to be nailed to a cross for his mistaken belief in his own capabilities. The dollar value of his efforts is going to be in the tens of billions of dollars on top of what was already being spent. It wasn’t as if he was cautious in his wording of what could be achieved. He was scathing of the previous government and especially of the previous NBN leadership and anybody who disagreed with him was a zealot or an idiot. It is only fair that we apply the same degree of rigour to Malcolms achievements.
Oh ffs KingForce, get the hell out of the comments. We don’t need any more of your LNP biased, common sense lacking, fact avoiding, bullshyte!
Your comment advises self-censorship. Let him speak. Let Google cache him for eternity and for eternity he will look the fool.
I remember Turnbull stating that FTTP would cost at least $90 billion or more.
Perhaps he was truthfully including all those extra costs of eventually converting his planned MTN band aid into what will soon be required to cover the rise in media streaming services?
Do you want a ‘Full Business Case’ with your order Sir?
“Commercial in confidence is now used to hide mistakes – it has nothing to do with legitimate business process.”
Even if you were right the government knows that everybody else disagrees with you so that gives them an excuse to sit on the Corporate Plan all day long.
Ask for too much and you may end up getting nothing.
I think its time to setup a Independent Telecommunications Commission, allow them to setup and roll out what they feel is necessary and remove politics from it all together.
What like NBN Co?
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