BREAKING: Government Sells Out, Will Release NBN Report for $3,631.99
Tech Wired today learned that the Australian Government will release its secret National Broadband Network Report if paid fees of up to $3,631.99.
Just yesterday we reported on the progress of a Freedom of Information application put forward by Tech Wired to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE). Today we received confirmation of certain costs to go forward.
You can read the 3 page document in full here: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3
Tech Wired won’t be pursuing the Freedom of Information application due to our low budget, but has pride in knowing that the Government will release a report to any random off of the street, but not to the opposition.
By request from Shadow Minister Nick Minchin, Senator Stephen Conroy was meant to release the findings of the report (and independent ACCC report) before February 5th 2009.
Senator Minchin has repeatedly called for these documents to be released for public comment before the Government makes any decision in relation to NBN bids.
In a compromise, which allowed the motion to pass with the support of Senator Stephen Fielding, it was amended to require the documents to be tabled “the day after the winning bid is announced”.
The exact date of Senator Stephen Conroy’s decision is still unknown, with the Senator telling Minchin in Parliament on the 4th:
This isn’t the first time Senator Conroy has been vague about a date, with him delaying filtering trials due to start December 24th 2008 to this very date, 2 months later
“Despite Senator Conroy’s claims that this tender process would be ‘open and transparent’, it has been anything but. While I maintain this advice should be publicly released before a successful tenderer is chosen, the Senate has agreed that at the very least they should be tabled immediately after a winning bid is announced,” Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Minchin said.
“Hopefully Senator Conroy now realises that it is totally unacceptable for this process to remain secret. Public scrutiny of this crucial advice to Government will enable a proper assessment of whether Labor is acting truly in the national interest and not purely in its short-term political interest,” he said.
I guess we’ll just have to wait for Senator Conroy’s ‘evidence-based approach’ to kick in.
Why is the link to Senator Minchin’s release entitled ‘Nick Xenophon’? You’ve got the wrong South Australian Senator I think.
I’d say you should start a donation box, but with the hours they’ve ascribed to the task they’re saying it’ll take about 5 weeks to release it even if you pay the money — is that right?
So you’d be gambling the $3600 on whether or not they’ll have released it by the end of March anyway.
178 hours of “decision time”? Four people working full time for a week? It’s one document! Government process can sometimes be inefficient, but this is ludicrous!
Shouldn’t you only be charged for the time and resources it takes to send a copy of the document to you, rather than charge you for the production of a document which has already been produced and paid for ? And what happens if multiple people request access to the document under the freedom of information act ? Do they get that amount from every person who applies, this seems rediculous.
Also I wonder if you’d be able to publish any of the content from the report, seems likely they’d allow you to see it, but prevent you from distributing the information (u know unless other people paid as well).
We’re not even close to a transparent process.
What the fuck?,
What’s the point of having freedom of information laws if no one can afford to get the information.
This is just government at its worst. Could someone [i'll do it if you want me to] start raising money to pay for this, as we the people have the right to the information.
This is rather amusing…
All those senators that are pushing for the release of the document…
Think one of them has bothered to put this request in themselves & get a copy…
Probably not… to cheap i bet…
No Government in this country or any of the so-called free countries around the world want you to have any information that is actually worthwhile. Modern governments survive via the mushroom edict – keep ‘em in the dark and feed ‘em bullshit. “Lets reduce teen pregnancies by increasing the age of consent! Lets stop the drinking problem by increasing the legal drinking age! Lets reduce road deaths by reducing speed limits and increasing the driving age! Lets make the internet safer by putting a mandatory filter in place!”
The problem with all these philosophies is that countries where the age of consent is as low as 12 have less teen pregnancies than ours, countries where wine and beer is drunk with meals by kids from the time they can drink from a glass have less alcoholism issues than we do, countries with higher speed limits and lower driving ages have less road fatalities than us, so what the fuck makes these shit-for-brains idiots think that putting a mandatory internet filter will have any impact on reducing “illegal internet activity”?
Unfortunately Joe and Joanne Lunchbucket out there who believe all the propaganda shit they see on the moronic box in the corner of their lounge room and haven’t two brain cells to bless themselves with, will also believe that this crap will do what they are told it will do. Those of us who can actually think know different.
Hey, if iiNet covered the cost of the FOI, could you then release the report publicly?
My email address is readily available. Contact me if interested.
Regards
Michael
techwired = all talk + no action
Be aware that there is every likelihood that even if you pay the money, large parts of the document will be blacked out.
I hope they use the good PDF redaction technique
Oh, keep all the PDF metadata intact as well.
*oops* giving them ideas.
NO CARRI
Wow, what an awesome bit of investigative reporting!! Great that you went to these lengths to get the report.
Reading the letter from the department, though, it doesn’t suggest that you will get access to the report if you pay the money. The fee they’ve quoted is just to -consider- whether you should get the report. The letter says on page 2 that if they decide to deny you access to the report (which I imagine they will) they will generously only charge you the estimated fee, and not more.
Bastards… Labor was all about cleaning up these abuses of the spirit of FOI laws once they got into power. Of course, now they are in power, and power corrupts.
From what has been said I would see that there is grounds to have the Documents release under both conditions of the “contend that the charge has been wrongly assed, or should be reduced or not imposed.”
As you have not proceeded based on the costs involved = “would cause you financial Hardship”
and the “Whether the giving of the access is in the general public interest” seams a easy one as you have pointed out that they have stated that the process would be ‘open and transparent’
Lots of Quotes there from the second page of the Freedom of Information application response & your article.
Thanks & Enjoy
Wow, $15 and $20 an hour! Ask for a detailed timesheet!