Government gears up to spend yet more on rural comms

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 26 June 2007 06:24

Opinion and Analysis

Communications minister Helen Coonan has just announced plans to spend $1 billion of taxpayers' money to bring high speed broadband services to 99 percent of the population by mid 2009, but she's not going to stop there, and Opel Networks could be in prime position to get almost half as much again in three years time.

Addressing the National Farmers Federation Conference just days before announcing "Australia Connected" Coonan said: "I am now turning my attention to establishing the next regional telecommunications inquiry – which is scheduled for early 2008. I can announce today that I intend to constitute the committee for the next Regional Telecommunications Inquiry in the near future. I will be consulting with my colleagues over the coming weeks, including the Deputy Prime Minister, on the make-up of this committee and its terms of reference. This legislated telecommunications inquiry will be independent and will make specific recommendations on the future needs of regional and rural consumers."

The Government's implementation of the recommendations from these three yearly independent reviews will be funded from the interest earned on the $2 billion Communications Fund, enshrined in legislation with the passage of the T3 Telstra sale package.

Coonan claimed that "The Communications Fund is vital to the future of regional and rural consumers. This fund will provide around $400 million every three years to assist in the provision of state of the art services for regional areas."

When she announced Opel as the winner of close to $1 billion of Australia Connected funding, she said: "Beyond 2009, this new scaleable national network will have the capacity to provide vastly increased speeds as Australia's demand for bandwidth grows, with funding already assured from the ongoing income stream provided by the Government's $2 billion Communications Fund."

This comment seems totally out of order, to suggest that one provider is already earmarked to receive a large amount of government money for projects that should properly be put out to open tender.