Senate Committee NBN report full of "partisan bitterness"

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 26 November 2009 10:19

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The Coalition dominated Senate Select Committee set up to investigate and report on, initially, to the NBN Mark 1 has issued its third report, complete with dissenting report from Labor members and a comment from Greens member, senator Scott Ludlam who says it "reflects a tone of partisan bitterness and suspicion which reflects poorly on the collaborative and diligent way in which the committee and its staff undertook the research, field trips and public hearings."

He adds that "Early drafts of the report would probably have read as a balanced assessment of the historic, technological and economic contexts within which to assess the current proposal for a National Broadband Network." And he says that "Reading between the lines to filter out the political positioning, the report is still an extremely valuable record of where the NBN has come from, its technological underpinnings, and what to look for in the future."

The main report's recommendations reflect the Coalition's repeated calls for a detailed cost-benefit analysis of the NBN, "before the NBN Co enters into any new asset purchasing agreements for the mainland deployment." The report also calls for an Interim Implementation Study Report by 31 December 2009 that must "provide a progress account of the planning of the NBN, including the progress of the deployment in Tasmania and lessons learned from that deployment."

It calls for the cost-benefit analysis, the Interim Implementation Study Report and the Final Implementation Study to be released for public scrutiny within 14 days of completion.

The main report also calls for the committee to remain in existence so it is able to "examine the findings of the National Broadband Network Implementation Study, the Government's response to the Implementation Study and any subsequent implications of that report for the National Broadband Network policy."

None of the main report's recommendations are supportive of the NBN, and none suggest any alternative. Labor members of the committee have dismissed the main report as being "not necessarily reflective of the evidence presented, rather an affirmation of the Opposition parties criticisms of the Government's telecommunications polices."

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