Angry Shorten says public has a “right to know” the NBN truth

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news An angry Bill Shorten has blasted Malcolm Turnbull for what he said was the Prime Minister’s attempts to stop the public from knowing the “truth” about the National Broadband Network, which the Opposition Leader said had become a “national disgrace” under Turnbull’s watch.

Late last night AFP officers raided the Melbourne office of former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, and the house of at least one Labor staffer working for Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare, in an apparent attempt to ascertain the identity of whistleblowers who have leaked a series of key documents from within the NBN company.

The extraordinary move was confirmed by AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin this morning, after it was revealed by Labor last night.

Delimiter and a number of other media outlets have also been reportedly named as part of the search warrant issued last night, although the AFP has not been in contact with Delimiter regarding the issue.

In a nationally televised press conference in Canberra this morning, AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin categorically ruled out any political influence on the NBN leaks investigation, stating that the Government had only become aware of the investigation as the raids were commencing yesterday.

However, in his own press conference this afternoon, Shorten drew a direct link between Turnbull personally and the NBN company’s actions.

The Opposition Leader said it was “inconceivable” that the NBN company would have acted on its own on this matter, without the Government knowing about it.

Shorten noted that the two NBN shareholder ministers, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann had access to the NBN company’s board — and that the company’s board would also have been likely to have been informed about the investigation.

Furthermore, Shorten noted that Turnbull had been Communications Minister for two years as part of the Abbott administration.

“I don’t think Australians are going to fall for the idea that the NBN lives on a different planet than Malcolm Turnbull — he was their Minister,” Shorten said.

The NBN company and the Government were not “two complete strangers who would pass each other on the road”, Shorten said. “It is inconceivable that NBN Co would launch a police investigation and not make its owners aware of what is going on.”

Shorten said Turnbull was going to “extraordinary” lengths to stop Australians from finding out the “truth” about cost blowouts in his version of the NBN.

“He is going after whistleblowers and he is smearing his political opponents,” said Shorten. “This is about an arm of Government seeking to shut down the truth.”

“Why is it that Malcolm Turnbull is so determined to stop the media from knowing the truth or the public finding out the truth?”

The Opposition Leader said the reality was that Turnbull was “embarassed” by the performance of the NBN over the past several years under his watch.

“Malcolm Turnbull has been in charge of Australia’s largest ever infrastructure project, and it’s been a disaster,” he said. “He promised a rollout of such ambition and scope, and it has never materialised.”

The documents which have been leaked from the NBN company over the past nine months have outlined a range of problems with the Coalition’s version of the NBN, including cost blow-outs, delays to the NBN rollout schedule, concerns about the quality of legacy networks the NBN company is acquiring from Telstra and Optus, and more. The NBN company has consistently questioned the authenticity of the leaked documents.

Shorten said it was clear that the NBN rollout had descended into an “unmitigated disaster” under Turnbull’s watch, and pointed out that the AFP had not investigated similar leaks regarding national security matters to come out of the Cabinet of the current Government.

“I think the public has the right to know the truth,” he said. “I think whistleblowers should have the capacity to do their work.”

“This country should be about the right of you, the media, to publish facts — for journalists to publish fearlessly.

“The NBN Co is a national disgrace, and I think Australian taxpayers deserve to know when Malcolm Turnbull has been wasting their money. The Government shouldn’t be afraid of the truth, it shouldn’t hide the truth, it should own the truth.”

Image credit: Screenshot of ABC News broadcast of Colvin’s press conference, believed to be covered under fair dealing

54 COMMENTS

  1. No opinion renai?
    I have to agree, it’s inconceivable that either fifield nor Turnbull were not aware or informed of the afp potential raids.

  2. I have noted a lack of opinion on the mater from Renai.

    Is it because the shredder is busy crunching through his Ipad?

  3. “Why is it that Malcolm Turnbull is so determined to stop the media from knowing the truth or the public finding out the truth?” – no he’s not. The Statement of Expectations that Malcolm Turnbull gave to NBN on 14-Apr-2014 states “The Government requires a high degree of transparency from NBN in its communications with the public and Parliament”. so obviously they have nothing to hide.

  4. @jasmcd
    No, it’s because he is feverishly typing away trying to cover this while calling as many contacts as possible, also with the knowledge that the AFP might turn up at any time and confiscate all his devices. He will be a very busy man indeed tofaytoday. Expect a summary editorial at the end of the day.

  5. The Opposition Leader said it was “inconceivable” that the NBN company would have acted on its own on this matter, without the Government knowing about it.

    I think Bill has nailed them on this. Either the government know and were liying, or they have no clue what nbn™ is actually up to.

    Either way, it isn’t a good look for them.

  6. Renai – The cops always arrest the little guy. So when they knock on your door, don’t try to shoot it out. Put down the mouse, strip to your jocks and walk out with your hands in the air. You’re a nerdy blogger, not Billy the Kid.

    • Mate I will be asking to see a warrant, then getting the f*ck out of the way and calling a lawyer.

      I may take some glam pics from the front lawn.

      • Make sure you take a photo of your lawn before they rip it up and destroy your garden bed!! :)

        • If they’re ripping up the front lawn and garden bed, see if they’d mind laying fibre to your house.

      • I’m not sure they’d actually raid you, they probably have everything available from your metadata already.

        • Which is pretty dodgy in itself. I doubt the was much advanced warning, but at least three separate media were on hand waiting for the AFP to show up.

          Someone leaked about the raid, which is an offence in itself.

      • Make sure you check the date, time , address and list of items in the warrant they’ve been authorized to search and/or seize.
        Anti-whistleblower legislation means you’re basically screwed so try and turn it into a “public interest matter”

      • > I may take some glam pics from the front lawn.

        Apparently when the data rentention laws were passed there was a provision put into another bill that was rushed in. Preventing you from documenting a AFP officers or 4 Letter agency encounters unless you was authorised

  7. “The NBN Co is a national disgrace, and I think Australian taxpayers deserve to know when Malcolm Turnbull has been wasting their money. The Government shouldn’t be afraid of the truth, it shouldn’t hide the truth, it should own the truth.”

    If the ALP can kick this corrupt gov out i think the NBN deserves nothing less than a full royal commission into the fraudulent actions of TurnCoat et al.

    • chances are pretty slim. Most likely Labor will just use and abuse the mess to embarrass the coalition for quite a while instead. (Labor probably have a skeleton or two of their own).

  8. More leaks please; taxpayers deserve to know about the (massive) coming financial hit.

    Instructive for journalists to experience the enormous weight of government and its potential for abuse many citizens experience all the time (ATO, ASIC, Fair Work, ACMA, right of entry, Work Safe, …). This will blow over in a couple of days, journalists unlikely to reflect on the bigger picture.

    Politicians, having legislated their own exemptions, continue pushing for even more intrusion.

    • Holy $#@& Richard, I find myself actually agreeing with you. I need to go lie down… Too much excitement for one day!

        • Richard/Dicky was probably the NBN rep who went on the raids with AFP taking pictures with his phone of Conroy/Opposition NBN policy and 30 or so other pictures of Opposition documents and disseminating them onto the web.

  9. You say that like you think journalists don’t have to deal with “ATO, ASIC, Fair Work, ACMA, right of entry, Work Safe, …”?

    Politicians, having legislated their own exemptions, continue pushing for even more intrusion.

    Yep, and the Murdoch press let them get away with it, because they know no government led by the LPA would use it against them.

  10. From memory when labor were in power plenty of NBN info was classed as commercial in confidence.

    Labor have no leg to stand on.

    • “Labor have no leg to stand on”

      That might be true if your memory was working properly, but alas it is not…

    • From memory when labor were in power plenty of NBN info was classed as commercial in confidence.

      You should go and get tested Frank, that isn’t the case.

        • Oops, and did they release it……. YES THEY DID!

          What have the libs released FROM NBN, NOTHING!!!!

          CiC is used by the libs to hide everything, permanently!

        • Ah yes blame the others to try to excuse the current kerfuffle… where I have seen this before, alain?

          Wow 2010 you say, eh? Don’t forget next comment (as you typically do) to tell “everyone else” to stop harping back to the past. That’ll keep your WTF, contradiction rate at it’s usual 100%…

          You’re welcome.

          Humorously but typically though, you our resident “mouth”, has absolutely nothing to say about the actual current raids. Which I’m sure, had such raids been conducted under the watch of a those other bastards, you’d be the scream queen with 200 comments of your own already…

          Funny how it works eh?

          You’re welcome, again.

          • So after all the usual diversionary waffle, Labor NBN Co did have NBN CIC documents, which three of you said they did not, and then par for the course then shoot the messenger who got it right in the first place.

            No apology though, standard FTTN hater head kick technique, even on a own goal.

          • ” NBN Co did have NBN CIC documents”

            For a very brief span while they were analyzed then released.

            That is nothing like Frank’s statement of “plenty of NBN info was classed as commercial in confidence”

            You are really stretched mono-molecularly thin alternate…

          • And after all your diversionary waffle, mixed with lashings of DER and a mass of stupidity… you alain, still haven’t addressed the topic relating to the raids…

            Keep tap dancing, boy.

            You’re welcome

          • No apology though, standard FTTN hater head kick technique, even on a own goal.

            Apology for what?

            You contend that the ALP had as much, or more, CiC as the LPA? That simply isn’t true.

        • Except where it was you mean.

          So you claim Labor claimed CiC as much, or more, than the LPA?

          Care to prove your claim.

          • + 1 TM…

            And with this our dear friend, completely sans explanation, will simply disappear, only to reappear at the next thread talking the same servile BS.

          • And with this our dear friend, completely sans explanation, will simply disappear, only to reappear at the next thread talking the same servile BS

            As was foretold.

            The only reason I ever bother replying to him is so the “google search” people see there is more to it than his empty claims.

          • So you claim Labor claimed CiC as much, or more, than the LPA?

            No.

            Care to prove your claim.

            Seeing I didn’t make the claim in the first place there is nothing to prove.

          • Seeing I didn’t make the claim in the first place there is nothing to prove.

            Nice sidestep Captain Obvious.

    • *sigh* Can we stop the childish bickering, please?

      Frank actually made a reasonable point (sorry guys) – Labor did try to classify plenty of stuff as CiC while in power. However, CiC can’t be used as a means to restrict information from the Senate, so it was subsequently released. Labor then complied with all Senate orders, and after trying to play their cards close to their chests, NBN Co then started publishing a very great deal on a regular basis that was almost all publicly accessible. But they were still cagey about certain details – they were never entirely transparent. But then, some design aspects really are sensitive, some have security implications, some actually do unfairly expose contractor details etc. You do have to work out at what point you limit information – if you want to release everything, then your project could be compromised by competitors or underhanded politics or industrial sabotage, so if you are limiting things to some extent, where is that point?

      The difference between Labor and the LNP is that the LNP have used CiC as a blanket excuse to limit absolutely everything, resulting in zero transparency. They have also refused to release details to the Senate despite the CiC claim being legally insufficient and inapplicable – not sure what penalties if any can be brought to bear as a result, but they’re past due, and if the penalties are insufficient to compel release of the requested information then legislation is needed urgently to address that shortcoming.

      So Frank is, broadly, correct, that Labor did indeed attempt to limit certain aspects as CiC. But saying they ‘have no leg to stand on’ is a little disingenuous and fails utterly to acknowledge that Labor did, indeed, acquiesce to the requests in the Senate, and NBN’s policy changed to pretty comprehensive annual (and monthly interim) reporting disclosing quite vast amounts of information that has since been completely shut down by the LNP.

      So yes, Labor have legs to stand on here, because they have a track record of being far more transparent than the LNP. Sure, those legs were a little wobbly to start with, but to pretend that Labor were as bad as the LNP have been fails to give credit to a party and politicians that learnt from their mistakes and actually improved.

      So I have to ask, do you care about transparency? Do you care about political honesty and being represented by people who respect the law and are willing to learn from their mistakes and improve their conduct? Because if so, bashing those who have demonstrated better behaviour and pretending that they are just as bad as those criminally contemptuous of the law is actually sending the message that there’s no point in politicians doing the right thing, because the electorate will tear them down based on preexisting political ideology anyway. And *that* is not only hippocritical, it is counter productive and politically dangerous.

      Fact Check result – partially true claim, but incorrect conclusion.

      • The difference between Labor and the LNP is that the LNP have used CiC as a blanket excuse to limit absolutely everything, resulting in zero transparency.

        Ummm…yeah, whatever. Sorry for not replying “long form”, but you pretty well shot your own comment down.

        • I agree TM and I have (normally) nothing but many, many +1’s for UG’s insightful comments…

          But perhaps (unlike the FTTP haters) UG is trying too hard to afford fairness to those who simply don’t deserve it?

          Because having seen Frank’s selfish comments over many years (as such perhaps I have an advantage over UG here) Frank’s main gripe is, if FttP is not available to him/100% of Aussies, it should not be available at all…

          So he bags (Labor’s … note the politics) FTTP… err forgetting that the alternate MTM plan, is way worse for most, even him… but as long as no one else gets (Labor’s… note politics) FTTP he’s happy…

          Frank lives rurally (dare one say “Nationally”) where it may take the equivalent fibre to supply him and his family with FTTP as it would to cover literarily 100s if not 1000’s of urban customers… and considering that while most here previously supported a FTTP model which the city subsidised the bush to assist those like Frank… Frank’s allies, such as Richard and alain will tell us that FttP is not affordable for Australia whatsoever, let alone 93% or FFS Franks 100%…

          So even though UG is willing to take Frank’s above comments on face value… AFAIC, Franks’s typically hollow and loaded comments are tainted in selfish and politically motivated BS…

          So what does this have to do with Frank’s above CiC comment…
          1 + 1 =?

          • But perhaps (unlike the FTTP haters) UG is trying too hard to afford fairness to those who simply don’t deserve it?

            Yes and no.

            Most discussions about the NBN are philosophical, it’s like arguing about the difference between the economy of Germany/Norway and the USA.

            I come from the perspective that a society needs to pay it’s way to equality. Others (Richard etc) argue that people should work their way to the top.

            Both views are valid, but only one is fair. At the end of the day, it comes down to how greedy you are.

      • Encryption and VPNs only hides your endpoint from a true location. My Internet address was here and now routed over here into a data-centre overseas.

        What doesnt do is completely hide your internet fingerprint and not how TCP/UDP works. So someone investigating you could see a encryption connection to 59.123.321.1 then move the attention to that Internet address or connecting internet backbone, start sucking up all the data and finding your fingerprint.

        While your VPN traffic is encrypted and pointless. The VPNs traffic to the internet stay unencrypted and all you did is shift your endpoint to delay someone capturing it unencrypted.

  11. > Delimiter and a number of other media outlets have also been reportedly named as part of the search warrant issued last night, although the AFP has not been in contact with Delimiter regarding the issue.

    It’s okay. AFP can file a request for info to google that will access your Google account renal

    Because they can….

    They made a laws todo it. Google must comply or get fined

    [sigh of disappointment]

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