Fletcher praises Turnbull’s “very competent” NBN stewardship

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news Government frontbencher Paul Fletcher has praised Malcolm Turnbull’s stewardship of the National Broadband Network project in response to sustained criticism from the Opposition, stating yesterday that the project was on track and that Turnbull had done a “very competent” job of reforming it.

Yesterday morning, the Opposition distributed the latest in an ongoing series of damaging leaked documents from the NBN company which contained damaging allegations about aspects of the Coalition’s controversial Multi-Technology Mix approach to the NBN.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield faced a hostile Labor party in the Senate about the issue in Senate Question Time yesterday. And during a debate on NBN legislation in the House of Representatives, Labor MP Ed Husic said the constant leaks from the NBN company were a result of the company’s staff being in “rebellion” against the MTM model.

In that same debate in the House, Paul Fletcher, Minister for Major Projects, Territories and Local Government, who often handles the Communications portfolio for Fifield and Prime Minister Turnbull in the House, painted a strong picture of the Coalition’s performance administering the NBN.

“I remind the House that when the previous Labor government left office, after six years in office, four and half years after they had first announced the NBN mark 2, they had managed to build up the network to such a tiny extent that only just over 300,000 Australian premises were in a position to connect to the network, should they have chosen to exercise that desire,” said Fletcher.

“The number now stands at 1.775 million and is increasing at an extremely rapid rate.”

Fletcher said under the Coalition the total number of premises that could connect to the NBN was increasingly rapidly, as well as the number of actual live connections, compared with what he said was a “pathetic” connection rate under Labor.

“… in less than four weeks, at the current run rate under this government, the NBN is connecting more people and more premises than was achieved in three years under the previous government,” he said.

Fletcher said the NBN company was currently led by an “experienced and competent board”, singling out chair Ziggy Switkowski for particular praise, as well as chief executive Bill Morrow.

“Across the management team there is a collection of highly qualified and experienced telecommunications executives,” the Liberal MP said. “You may say that this is surely a fairly obvious and basic thing to do. But, bizarrely, it was not done under the previous government and that is one clear reason why the rollout performance under the previous government was hopeless.”

“Under the overall direction of the Turnbull government and, previously, I might add, under the very competent direction of the member for Wentworth as Minister for Communications, what NBN Co is doing now is calmly, pragmatically and systematically getting on with rolling out the network and putting in place all the fundamental and basic corporate disciplines of planning, monitoring performance against plan and achieving against targets.”

Fletcher said the NBN company had met its published targets now for six quarters in a row, and the evidence showed that the Coalition’s preferred Fibre to the Node technology continues to be cheaper to deploy than Labor’s preferred FTTP model, and generated the same levels of satisfaction amongst users.

“The ultimate test is what customers make of the services, and we are seeing that customer perceptions are consistent with the strategy that the Coalition took to the 2013 election and the strategy that is now being implemented by NBN Co,” said Fletcher.

The Liberal MP said the Opposition continued to try to attempt to “whip up some version of events which is at odds with reality”.

“What we are seeing is a difficult and ambitious project, a project which we have consistently said is not one we would have started,” said Fletcher.

“We would not have chosen this as a starting point, but it fell to the Coalition, as it so often does, to clean up Labor’s mess. What we are doing is getting on with NBN Co managing this ambitious rollout in a systematic, methodical and business-like fashion. The results are there. There is a lot more to do. It is a big and ambitious project, but under the Turnbull government it is going very much in the right direction.”

opinion/analysis
Do I agree with most of what Fletcher has said here?

No, I don’t. I personally believe the NBN was more or less on track under Labor, and — more to the point — under the talented Mr Quigley. I think Malcolm Turnbull has been a disaster for the NBN.

However, it is also truth that there are nuggets of truth in what Fletcher has said here that do bear ongoing consideration in the overall truth of the NBN, especially the fact that Labor didn’t need to go down this revolutionary path of setting up a whole new Telstra to effectively restructure the old one. There were indeed other options open at the time, such as splitting Telstra from its HFC cable network and structurally separating its retail arms from its wholesale and network arms.

Then too, like Fletcher, I broadly regard Morrow as a very competent executive, even if I disagree with much of what he says.

I don’t publish Fletcher’s speech here because of any false and illusory idea of “balance” on Delimiter. That notion is not relevant to journalists who prefer to focus on a little something some of us like to call the “facts”, based on “evidence”.

Instead, I published Fletcher’s views here because I like to have my own views and opinions challenged by contradictory opinions. I like to have my own views set on flame with dissent and see if they survive the fires of verbal adversity.

I hope you do too — because if you don’t, you’re reading the wrong website.

50 COMMENTS

  1. Why is it everyone claims the ONLY measurement for NBN Co whilst under Labour, is premises past. I know it makes for nice numbers. Why doesnt anyone recognise (yes rhetorical question) the fact that it went from a Idea under Labour, to a full company, with design engineers and technicians starting with a blank piece of paper, figuring out HOW this would happen.

    The HOW, the planning, the execution BEFORE a single cable is buried in the is even more critical than the small numbers of premises past, yet its convenient left out of the narrative.

    I know its a rhetorical question, however its something that is rarely mentioned to counter the FUD, even by those who are supportive of the Original NBN.

    /RANT OFF

    • Anyone with passing knowledge or experience with even small scale projects knows that, to be successful, planning and design work needs to be done extensively in order for the execution phase to have any chance at success.

      “One hour of planning saves 20 to 200 hours of implementation”

    • The why of superfast broadband isn’t much in dispute, the how and what are.

      PMG mk2 was the wrong approach, given OECD policy advise for regulatory reform, competition for infrastructure and services, and neutrality of technology.
      Best if split.

      My home in the ‘burbs 30 km from Sydney can get HFC (100/ 2 Mbps, but we only have 30/ 1 Mbps with 500 GB, Netflix (if largely SD), two teenagers and all, even a neighbour on our guest network) or DSL. 4G, 3G needs a booster around here. Telstra Air Wi-Fi spreading.
      [It was HoWARd that privatised a vertically integrated Telecom/ OTC from 1997.]

      My old home in the ‘burbs 30 kms from Amsterdam can get the telco’s fibre 500/ 500 Mbps or cableco’s HFC 250 Mbps. TV is over DVB-C, -T or -S. 4G. Wi-Fi at most stations.

      In Dec 2015, nbn MTM mk3 had reputedly activated 736K premises (and passed more than double that, out of somewhere between 12.3M to 13.2M premises to do). Three quarters of which on 25/ 5 Mbps or below.
      By late Feb 2016, activations were reputedly up to 800K.

      I also note that FTTx for an unlimited bundle and 50 to 100/ 20 Mbps through TPG Wondercom seems to be about $20 to $30 per month cheaper than any major comms provider on nbn.

      Moreover that SingTel Optus has a transportable 4G plan out there with 50 GB of quota, presumably okay if [not] gaming or streaming.

      It has been a long time since a no to the Telstra FTTN of 2005, even yes to Opel Networks’ DSL/ WiMAX of 2007, which gave way to later abandoned NBN FTTN mk1 of 2007, but it wasn’t till 2011 and 2014 that deals were reached with SingTel Optus and Telstra.

      Or even longer since Aussat was offloaded onto a then start-up Optus with something like more than three times debt over equity, in 1991.

    • As a card-carrying registered anti-Labor voter, I will nevertheless give Labor 1 credit: at least they got the NBN off the debating platform and into something that resembled reality. Oh yes: they also got a couple of useful satellites into the air. To be honest, all the pre-Rudd debate over what we now call NBN was no more than capitalists filibustering and practising their Socialist debating skills.

      The ongoing post-2013 reality is that even with Labor’s chronic and incurable mismanagement, the rollout of FTTP would, from then until now, be somewhere near where FTTN/MTM now is, perhaps a bit less but not by much. All the critics have coveniently forgotten the need to accumulate skills AND Experience in such a massive undertaking, which is what has happened under Abbott and 2X. So 1 kudo to Labor.

      OTOH, Liberal has little to crow about. Frankly, a coalition of Minor Parties–this does NOT include the Nats or the Greens–could govern more effectively than Liberal OR Labor. “It’s Time” we gave the Soc-Dems a chance.

      • Why start a post as you’re “anti” anything?

        I like to keep an open mind, and am willing to change depending on what suits Australian society (which for some odd reason I feel were all a part of). By saying “I’m anti-xyz party” before even seeing policies, you only show your biased for the wrong reasons.

        Keep an open mind Gordon. Vote for the people that will do you/us right. I’ve voted for all the major parties at one time or another, and will be more than happy to vote LNP, ALP, Green or Independent if they can show me they have our best interest at heart.

        People need to start looking at what is actually offered policywise, and not what they think is offered by what they consider is their ideologically “normal” alignment, because none of them (LNP/Greens/ALP) are what they were.

        • I agree Tinman it’s always got to be policy, policy, policy, forget the party and the leader personality bullshit.

        • +1 I used to vote exclusively LNP but it was Howard’s Telstra mess that eventually caused me to become politically homeless.

          Now I vote on policies and who has show themselves to be trustworthy (that part is entirely relative).

        • As I have said all along…

          In my experience, no one has ever put forward a rational reason for supporting Australian’s being supplied with a retrograde MTM network, or denying Australian’s a world class FttP network..

          The only reasons (again in my experience) are short term personal greed, but primarily complete mindless political bias.

          Obviously neither of these are rational.

          In the last few days, Gordon and another poster (no not the obvious usual suspects, who lie and contradict, but then deny *sigh*) have not only distilled this opinion of mine, but by openly admitting being anti-Labor, they ergo also admit that they will always oppose FttP, even if it is obviously better for them and their families… not for any other reason but, it was their political foes idea and they are compelled to oppose it.

          Sad…

          • Rizz,

            In my experience, no one has ever put forward a rational reason for supporting Australian’s being supplied with a retrograde MTM network,

            Well they have but you and other pro FTTP cheer leaders preferring to ignore it doesn’t define ‘no one’.

          • Indeed Chas,

            But alain doesn’t understand rational, which is why he openly and irrationally contradicts himself, perpetually to suit his cyclopic politics…

            Gems such as…

            (FTTP) NBN will be successful because it’s a monopoly. Whilst trying to bag FttP NBN as big bad, socialist, monopoly.

            Two weeks later he says, NBN will fail like failed HFC did, completely ignoring the socialist monopoly angle. Presumably after a nasty knuckle rap for suggesting anything associated with the political enemy could be successful.

            Now years later he says that very same failed HFC is great and wise to reuse…

            And these are his “rational explanations”…ROFLMFAO.

            As one of the, if not the, main contender to prove my initial point about mindless posters backing the party not the topology, beyond any doubt…he ironically, just did it again…

            GOLD

          • Exactly Rizz, it reminds me of the old adage of “they’d cut off their nose to spite their face”…

        • Tinman_au,

          People need to start looking at what is actually offered policywise, and not what they think is offered by what they consider is their ideologically “normal” alignment, because none of them (LNP/Greens/ALP) are what they were.

          That’s fine but as I keep repeating there is only one policy out there, the current MtM deployment, if people want to look at what the Labor alternative policy is they have to try and read between the lines with vague conflicting mutterings and a shit load of anti MtM ranting smoke screen and not much else.

          A prime example, we may keep HFC but Husic bags HFC this week, so will they or won’t they?

          A case of sitting firmly on the HFC fence with a leg on either side.

          Clare has stated it’s not possible to go back to the old Labor NBN Policy of 93% FTTP to residences.

          Ok got what you cannot do so what is it exactly you can do?

          • “so what is it exactly you can do?”

            Perhaps, unlike Turnbull who had no problem lying through his teeth prior to the election and making promises he had no intention of keeping, Clare wishes to maintain a standard of ethics that will wait until he is allowed to see the actual numbers and is no longer constrained by the CiC curtain that the Coalition seem to have covered the NBN with concerning all actual facts.

            Making policy without facts is the height of stupidity (just ask Tony and Malcolm).

          • # alain,

            “That’s fine but as I keep repeating there is only one policy out there, the current MtM deployment…”

            Yes that’s right you told us that “Labor needed a solution” (to the fuckup which is MTM)…

            You’re welcome.

          • A case of sitting firmly on the HFC fence with a leg on either side.

            Which is a sensible position, I’m sure you’ll agree, until/unless they get back in and actually determine what the actual plans for it are, and what condition the HFC network is actually in.

            It’s only the LNP that make “promises” based on guesswork and napkins.

        • “Why start a post as…” Because I find its best if I state my base ideological position up front. People know where I’m coming from.

          “…your biased for the wrong reasons.” Did you read the remainder of the post?

          “Keep an open mind…” And how open is your mind? Does the thought of a coalition of Minor (read: Minnow) Parties upset you?

          “…start looking at what is actually offered policywise… ideologically “normal” alignment…” Absolutely. But one should take the broad view, aka “Big Picture” rather than just a couple of items we want above all else. And always remember–it’s hard, I know, since they never really attract our interest–to include the Nats in the list of “them”.

          @MikeK: I knew Abbot was a *)&_ before I cast a vote. I also knew Liberals would be struggling. and I also knew the NBN would be savaged. But I also knew their other, “unimportant”, policies were better than Labor’s.

          And for the troll (not Reality), guess who’s been dancing up and down the street for over 12 months, and will hold a wild celebration on Wednesday (ISP install permitting)??????? FWIW, it’s not 2X’s MTM, but it is what Labor started their design concept with–if you can remember what that is.

          • The LNP is a coalition of minor parties!

            Liberal party, national party, liberal national party, country liberal party

            None of which could ever gain power on their own.

          • That comment is rich seeing as Labor scraped into power avoiding a hung Parliament in 2010 courtesy of the minor Greens and a few minor Independents to whom they had to keep onside for the next three years.

            Gillard was a far better negotiator than Abbott, but that wouldn’t be hard.

          • No Gordon,

            You thought Abbott was great which is why you voted as you always do…

            We told you he was hopeless and we told and keep telling you MTM is hopeless…

            Think about it?

          • And how open is your mind? Does the thought of a coalition of Minor (read: Minnow) Parties upset you?

            No, why should it?

            Labor showed you can still have a workable government that released good policy and legislation in that position, it’s only the LNP that can’t seem to play nicely with others.

          • Gillard was a far better negotiator than Abbott, but that wouldn’t be hard.

            I’ll be damned, Abbott can negotiate???

  2. Fletcher is a god dam hypocrite of the Highest order!!

    If you dont know what I mean, read his book “wired brown land” and see the contrast between his statements before becoming a liberal MP and now!

  3. Coalition clowns notorious for their comedic works in everything broadband related sets a new standard. Although we haven’t heard much from Paul Fletcher recently it’s not surprising he was the one who attained it, before the election his delusions were the best.

    • Coalition clowns notorious for their comedic works in everything broadband related sets a new standard.

      It’s not funny though HC, it’s just…weird…it’s like watching a telecast from a parallel universe…

      • Absolutely Tinman…

        It’s amazing the lengths this latest batch of politicians (particularly of the conservative nature) will go to to try to beat their own chests and tell us how great things are and how great they are, when everyone not associated with politics and even their own GBE people, can clearly see otherwise.

        Better still (by that I of course mean WTF)… are their ever trusty subservient posters here who take the same BS to a new level of derp.

        IMO in comparison, these people make their master’s look almost human. Because they are clearly the lunatic fringe from even within this 1950’s, safety bubble, backward/reverse parallel universe, of which you speak.

  4. It is galling that they are able to make factually baseless claims without repercussions. You’re not allowed to call a member a liar in the house, but members are allowed to blatantly lie. I think parliament needs some new rules, starting with a Fact Check flag and the ability for censure and penalty of a member who knowingly makes false claims.

    For example, claiming the NBN’s rollout numbers under the LNP compared to Labor mean they are doing the job better is patently false – yes, at the beginning of a project, you start with a tiny number of metrics met; of course you do, it’s a decade long project FFS! Guess what? At the end of the project you should find that *all* metrics are met – does that mean whoever is in power at the time gets to claim they ‘completed what the Opposition couldn’t’? How ridiculous. And yet, I can see them trotting this same line out.

  5. Fletcher praises Turnbull’s “very competent” NBN stewardship

    Are we getting to the point where we can start calling all this nbngate yet?

    It’s got all the hallmarks of a “gate”, clandestine activities, harassment of activist groups and cover-up’s…

    • Rich material for the next season of Utopia.

      Why do politicians put this stuff on the record so they can be held to ridicule later? Is this sort of statement persuasive to the majority of swinging voters?

      • Why do politicians put this stuff on the record so they can be held to ridicule later? Is this sort of statement persuasive to the majority of swinging voters?

        Hitler nailed it in Mein Kampf, not that I’m suggesting the LNP are fascists (no, seriously), all modern propaganda/marketing is based on it:

        The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success. – Mein Kampf (1925), by Adolf Hitler

  6. “the project was on track and that Turnbull had done a “very competent” job of reforming it.”
    Yes, and all that was required to pull the project on track was to delay it by 4 years.

  7. This resonated strongly with me:

    “I don’t publish Fletcher’s speech here because of any false and illusory idea of “balance” on Delimiter. That notion is not relevant to journalists who prefer to focus on a little something some of us like to call the “facts”, based on “evidence”.

    Instead, I published Fletcher’s views here because I like to have my own views and opinions challenged by contradictory opinions. I like to have my own views set on flame with dissent and see if they survive the fires of verbal adversity.

    I hope you do too — because if you don’t, you’re reading the wrong website.”

    Being challenged with different ideas/opinions helps you to think outside the box – or just helps strengthen your ideas/opinions by identifying flaws (that perhaps can be addressed). It may even cause you to re-evaluate your idea/opinion.

    However, for those things to happen, an intelligent discussion/discourse with someone you respect/trust and/or is a relevant expert, is required (at least for me). Without it, their opinion is simply dismissed – they are not worth listening to. More often than not, this is a valid approach.

    Given the general feeling towards the coalition (regarding the NBN), few will listen. I can’t blame them. The coalition have lost their trust/respect and have shown time and again they are far from experts on the topic. So much of what they say is just spin, lies and half truths (as is with much of politics).

    This seems to be the current climate of politics in Australia – a very much polarised environment.

    So, i’m glad you’re here to cut through the bull and find the things worth bringing to our attention so that we might gain a better understanding and have more informed opinions.

  8. Then too, like Fletcher, I broadly regard Morrow as a very competent executive, even if I disagree with much of what he says.

    I’d agree…to a point, Renai.

    He is competent in the same way that Mitch is. But I think our corporate executives should be held to a much higher level than our politicians (don’t get me started on ASIC’s slackness). Our “Free market” executives can have a much bigger impact on ordinary citizens lives than politicians, and the only way “free market” actually works for society, is if it’s well regulated. The free market is the engine of a strong society, but if it becomes corrupted, or greedy, it works against the common good and becomes a brake.

    I believe the nbn™ is skirting pretty close to the edge at the moment (the “edge” being whats good for “us” the Australian people and “them” the execs/politicians), which is why we’re seeing people with an actual conscience leaking and trying to make things right. I realise the nbn™ don’t have the same (supposed) independence as the ABC, but that’s why folks in the company are now taking the risk and speaking up.

    In fact the whole world feels like it’s coming to a crossroads, it’s like we’re about to hit one of those moments in history where things are never the same again.

    There’s strange things afoot when someone like Donald could well be the next “Leader of the Free World”, China bumps it’s military spending up by 20% while aggravating pretty well everyone in the pacific and the UK is looking likely to disrupt the whole EU with a possible Brexit.

    Interesting times…

  9. If you truly believe in statements like this, consider another career: “No, I don’t. I personally believe the NBN was more or less on track under Labor, and — more to the point — under the talented Mr Quigley.”.

    I’m not defending Turnbul and co, but really, to suggest that Labor’s NBN was on track compared to what we have now is laughable.

    The biggest problem with the NBN are the capital works and this was on the verge of collapse by the time the last election came around. Let’s not forget this.

    • Nice revisionism, shame it’s mostly based on false, and deliberately misleading premises, but then that seems to be the only thing the LNP is actually good at.

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