Conroy: Factional deal-maker to policy hard-head

James Riley
Tuesday, 15 September 2009 17:14

Opinion and Analysis

For those who don't know him well at all – say, me and Telstra – Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has made a remarkable trip in a short time: from factional deal-maker in opposition to policy hard-head in Government.

For me, it has been merely interesting to watch. For Telstra … oh … so painful.

Conroy has played the politics of the NBN unbelievably well – since long before the last election. And he has been, from the outside looking in at least, unwavering. He has been clear in his messaging, and has not backed off from those messages.

I have said that Conroy has been a much better performer in government than he was in opposition, although people that know him well say that’s wrong.

They say Telstra’s second biggest mistake was to treat Conroy in his first year of the Rudd Government as the factional deal-maker they believed he was. The expectation was that he would negotiate a neat and palatable compromise, the way that deal makers do.

And of course, Telstra’s biggest mistake was in pissing off Kevin Rudd. By treating the Government with such contempt in its short response to the RFP, Telstra is said to have filled the Prime Minister with about as much rage as the man can handle – and he’s apparently good at it.

Anyway, Conroy wasn’t going to squib on broadband. And with an annoyed and therefore highly-motivated PM behind him, Telstra had set itself on a hiding to nothing.

By the time Conroy had finished saying the words "The Government will require the functional separation of Telstra, unless it decides to voluntarily structurally separate," the industry had changed.

A large part of the Conroy process in recent months seems to have been aimed at making sure Telstra’s board and senior management really understood that he meant what he was saying. To me, the $250 million regional backhaul RFP that closed recently was simply a very expensive message about the NBN to Telstra: YES, WE ARE GOING TO DO THIS.

Well, the regional backhaul program will also be useful in the 2010 election year lead-up, with more hard-hat opportunities across regional Australia and through electorate after electorate. And then there's its actual usefulness as a communications pipe to consider ...

Our communications Minister’s march through the first term of the Rudd Government has impressive – and that includes the way he’s handled internet filtering.

Internet users can get completely feral about filtering and I’m not a huge fan of what government is proposing (and purportedly trialling.) But I would point out – just quietly and keep it to youself – that under Stephen Conroy, after two years and undoubtedly furious departmental activity … nothing! NOTHING HAS HAPPENED.

CONTINUED