Nick Minchin makes merry with NBN panel "admissions"

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 19 May 2009 10:52

IT Industry - Strategy

The Shadow Minister for Broadband and Comms, Senator Nick Minchin, has yet again blasted the Federal Government over its claims following the announcement that the $4.7B NBN would be turning into a $43B NBN, saying that some members of the NBN Panel have admitted never giving any advice to the Government on investing in a “fibre to the home” network.

The guns keep on firing from the Federal Opposition over the National Broadband Network (NBN) and what has been claimed by the Federal Government.

Senator Nick Minchin, the Shadow Minister for Broadband and Communications, has put out a statement blasting the Federal Government on its claims of support from its own NBN advisory panel.

Minchin states that: “Two members of Senator Conroy’s National Broadband Network (NBN) panel of experts have finally lifted the lid on Labor’s broadband incompetence and recklessness.

“Panel member Professor Rod Tucker reportedly told an Alcatel-Lucent Forum last night that the panel was not asked to provide any advice on the viability of Labor’s $43 billion proposal.”

Professor Tucker is quoted as saying: “I just want to make one thing clear: the panel of experts was never asked to and didn’t make any judgement call on the issue of investment for a fibre to the home network.”

Minchin then continues, claiming that: “Senator Conroy and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have repeatedly claimed that Labor’s $43 billion fibre to the premise NBN announcement was simply a case of the Government following the advice of its expert panel, after the panel reported that Labor’s election policy for an NBN could not be delivered.

“Fellow panel member Professor Reg Coutts said the NBN simply could not be built without Telstra.”

Continued on page two, please read on!