Opposition's FoI ploy for NBN details hits $24k brick wall

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 23 July 2009 09:25

IT Industry - Strategy

Shadow communications minister Nick Minchin's attempts to use FoI to get the government to reveal details of its NBN RFP process have a hit a $24,000 brick wall: the cost of processing the requests for the hundreds of documents involved. However Minchin claims that the number and ownership of documents alone is telling.

According to Minchin these details indicate that the $43b NBN plan was put together by DBCDE with minimal input from other departments. "The scope of the request covered four different departments, including Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (BCDE), Prime Minister and Cabinet, Finance and Deregulation and Treasury, he said. "BCDE has identified 453 relevant documents and by comparison Treasury has identified 22 documents and the other two key departments relatively few judging by estimated search, retrieval and assessment time."

Minchin concluded: "This further suggests, as did recent Senate Estimates hearings, that Treasury, Finance and PM and C had very little official involvement in the costing and development of a $43b proposal, which will be funded from a base of substantial Rudd Government debt and deficit."

His spokesman said that the Opposition had no plans to stump up the $24,000 fee, given that an earlier attempt to get only the report of the expert panel set up to evaluate the RFPs for the $4.7b NBN mark 1 had failed.

Minchin's FoI ploy was prompted by remarks attributed to Expert Panel member, Rod Tucker in May that the panel had not bee asked to provide any advice on the viability of Labor's $43 billion proposal. 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."

At least one government body flagged by communications minister Stephen Conroy as being involved with funding the NBN has revealed that it has not been consulted.

When he announced the NBN on 7 April, Conroy said the Government would issue bonds that would allow households and institutions to invest in the network. However in a submission to the Senate Select Committee investigating the NBN, Neil Hyden, CEO of the Office of Financial Management, which is responsible for managing government debt, said his organisation had not been consulted.