Conroy regrets blunder, phones Telstra's Thodey

James Riley
Tuesday, 27 October 2009 11:18

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has accepted responsibility in the Senate for mistakenly releasing confidential information on the value of the Telstra network, and has today spoken directly to Telstra chief executive David Thodey on the issue.

Ignoring calls from across the chamber for his resignation, Senator Conroy told the Senate the mistake was "an unfortunate error," but one he did not believe would effect the on-going negotiations with Telstra. He said he had called Thodey to apologise and explain the error.

"It is regrettable as I have said that an unfortunate error resulted in this confidential information not being removed before the document … I take responsibility, I make that absolutely clear," Senator Conroy said in response to a Question Time query from shadow minister Nick Minchin.

"We are confident that constructive talks with Telstra can continue. The value of network assets is a subject of talks with Telstra, and we have already indicated that we will not be discussing or giving a running commentary on these discussions."

Senator Conroy yesterday inadvertently tabled documents in the Senate yesterday that included an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report to Government’s Expert Panel assessing proposals to the original NBN request for proposals.

The ACCC report included commercially sensitive valuations of the Telstra network – highlighted in yellow marker pen – that were supposed to have been redacted before the report was tabled.

It valued the network between $8 billion and $33 billion depending on whose methodology was used – highlighting the potential of a yawning $25 billion difference between the Government’s valuation of the Telstra network and the company's own valuation.

Senator Minchin said: "The perverse irony is Senator Conroy has mistakenly released confidential information that he shouldn’t have, but refuses to release information that he should."

The issue was raised within the Coalition party room this morning, where, according to a spokesman, deputy Opposition leader Julie Bishop branded Senator Conroy a "serial blunderer" over the mistake.

Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull continued to oppose the march toward an NBN rollout in the meeting, saying it "beggars belief" that Government would consider spending $43 billion on the network in the absence of a full cost-benefit analysis.

Senator Conroy called the Opposition trumpeting of the error hypocritical, saying the Coalition had been demanding access to the full reports, and when it received them – even in error – it still howled about the release of the information as a mistake.

Debate on the telecommunications reform bill remains listed for the Senate tomorrow, although it is not yet clear how that will happen. With an Opposition motion in place that prevents any debate on NBN-related bills until the Senate has been given full access to reports on the previous RFP – including an Expert Panel evaluation of proposals – debate may yet be stymied.