Bigger than Ben Hur: $500k for NBN conference

James Riley
Wednesday, 11 November 2009 17:07

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The two-day NBN conference being opened by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Sydney next month will cost Australian taxpayers more than $500,000 and produce "nothing more than a cynical marketing exercise," shadow communications minister Nick Minchin said.

According to the Government Gazette, the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Arts will pay Paddington-based conference specialists Event Planet more than $528,498 to organise the 'Realising Our Broadband Future' forum for December 10 and 11.

Government says the conference is a "landmark" event that will help shape planning for the companies and researchers that will develop the next generation services, while Senator Minchin calls it is a "glitzy broadband talkfest" and "straight from the Kevin Rudd handbook."

Event Planet is the same company that organised the DBCDE Digital Ready Conference in March on behalf at a cost of $698,000 that Senator Minchin quizzed the department about at Estimates hearings last month.

Senator Minchin has been a vociferous critic of Government's NBN spending plans in the absence of a business case, and prior to the delivery of the $25 million implementation plan.

"The Rudd Government has recklessly committed to spend up to $43 billion of taxpayers' money on an NBN and now wants to hold a summit to talk about how it might be used. You would think they would have worked this out beforehand," Senator Minchin said.

The conference is shaping as one of the largest telecommunications forums held in this country. In addition to the Prime Minister, keynote speakers include Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett and ACT Senator Kate Lundy.

Just announced in the line-up is Intel Corporation's director of User Experience Genevieve Bell, who has acted recently as the South Australian Government's Thinker in Residence.