The Australian Government is refusing to release the commissioned National Broadband Network Report that suggests possible tenders for the NBN, saying that it…

“…has the potential to prejudice the outcome of the process.”

As such, the government wont be letting anyone, including the opposition, scrutinise the report. What does this mean? It means that it will allow the Department for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy to choose whoever they see fit as the tenderer for the National Broadband Network, without any fear of being scrutinised. Therefore Tech Wired has decided to take action…

After reading the government’s press release on the 22nd of January, it was decided by myself to apply under the Freedom of Information Act for the report the government wasn’t prepared to release.

The process began with a form faxed to the Department’s lawyers requesting the report be made available under Freedom of Information laws.

I attached my Credit Card details for payment, though it was rejected as a payment method.

“Unfortunately, I can’t accept your credit card authorisation – we only
accept a cheque or money order for the $30 application fee, and so at
this stage I can’t accept it [The FOI] as a valid request.“

I stood in front of my computer stunned, stared at my colleague and screamed loudly. Surely the Department for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy would accept a form of digital payment?

I emailed back the following:

“Andrea,
Thank you for your prompt response.
Is it possible to BPay the Department or pay via some electronic means?”

To which I finally received the response I was looking for:

“I’ve checked with our accounts department and they say you can pay by
EFT to our account and it will be received by us the next day. That
would then be the date your request would become valid.”

A day later and the request was processed, below is what I requested:

Just the other day I received the following in the letterbox:

It stated that it could take up to 30 days to process the application, which leaves us until March 4th to here hear back from the Government.

Let’s see how it goes, shall we?