Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra today, Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, said that Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy was “positively youthful”, though doesn’t deserve to be a Parliamentarian any longer.
“Stephen Conroy appears positively youthful,” he said.
Turnbull remained speculative of the Government’s broadband decision, noting that the National Broadband Network (NBN) had no financial analysis released with its announcement.
“This is a man that has completely bungled the National Broadband tender and presumably suggested to the Prime Minister that they announce a 43-billion dollar broadband project without any financial analysis at all,” he told delegates
In concluding his analysis of another Minister and Senator Stephen Conroy, he stated that Conroy didn’t deserve to be a minister at all.
“Now I don’t think either of those two Parliamentarians, relatively useful youthful though they may be, deserve to be…Ministers or even in Parliament based on their capacity and performance.”
In today’s iTnews I spoke with one of the NBN expert panel members:
Nick Minchin, Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has told Tech Wired that he remains defensive of the Governments 42 billion dollar National Broadband Network after Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, addressed the Nation on Tuesday last week at the National Press Club.
Speaking at the National Press Club on Tuesday last week, Senator Stephen Conroy said that the opposition had failed to invest in Nation-building broadband infrastructure.
“We should not be surprised that the Opposition fails to grasp the importance of this nation-building initiative,” said Senator Stephen Conroy.
“After all, they failed to undertake critical infrastructure investment for 12 long years,” he said.
Speaking with a spokesperson for the Shadow Minister, Tech Wired was told that this was absolute nonsense.
“He (Senator Stephen Conroy) has promised us the world, but delivered very little,” the spokesperson said.
When asked if Opposition believed that Senator Conroy was copying them with the offering of wireless services for the 10 percent not included in the FTTP (Fibre to the Premise) build, they agreed.
“We took to the election to deliver wireless services for the last-mile,”
“Conroy is now building a model very similar to that of our, now scrapped, OPEL plan.”
Responding to Senator Conroy’s latest announcment of “fast-tracking” backhaul around Australia, Tech Wired was told by the Shadow Minister’s spokesperson that under their scrapped OPEL plan they would’ve rolled out a large amount of backhaul.
“Under our OPEL plan 15,000 kilometres of new back haul was going to be rolled out,” the spokesperson said.
The Shadow Minister himself, Senator Nick Minchin, told Tech Wired in a brief phone interview that he remained sceptical as to why the Government won’t release their report conducted by the expert panel as to why the Government brought forward the decision to build a FTTP network.
When informed about Tech Wired’s failed attempt at retrieving the NBN expert panel report under FOI (Freedom of Information) laws before the NBN announcement, Minchin said that he knew about it and was currently looking at possible ways to retrieve the report now that the announcement is complete and the Government continues to refuse access to it.
“We’re having a look at it,” Nick Minchin told Tech Wired.
“We’ll be looking at all the opportunities available in the Senate to get those reports,” he said.
“It’s pretty outrageous to abandon its (the Government’s) first policy and expect the Parliament to support it without any evidence,” he added.
His spokesperson told us that they believed the government was hiding something.
“The assumption we would make is that there is something to hide,” the spokesperson said.
The Government released all but a summary from the expert panel report, which we known consists of 913 pages thanks to the FOI application.
“They only released a 3 page extract that tells us bugger all,” Minchin responded in our phone interview.
When asked if the Opposition would accept the Government’s report if commercial interests were redacted, they said yes.
“If there is some particular part that needs to be blacked out, we don’t mind,” the spokesperson said.
The Opposition is also asking the Government to release coverage maps of where the FTTP network will be rolled out.
“We’ve called on them (the Government) to release coverage maps as we’re getting a lot of angst from rural Australia that they’re going to miss out,” the spokesperson for Minchin said.
Responding to Tech Wired’s request for comment, the Department for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy issued the following statement:
The Government has released the observations of the expert panel in an extract from the evaluation report.
The remainder of the expert panel’s report contains confidential commercial information so will not be released.
The ACCC report also contains confidential information.
The Minister has asked the Department to ascertain whether or not there may be aspects of the ACCC report suitable for release.
- Government puts out request for potential tenders for a lead advisory role in the NBN implementation
- It consists of a two-stage selection process
- Role may go to a consortium of companies or people
Late Friday afternoon saw government tender documents released for a lead advisory role for the National Broadband Network (NBN) implementation study.
The documents, put forward by the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE), are a Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI) for the provision of lead advisory services relating to the implementation study.
The purpose of the REOI, consisting of 39 pages, is to compile a shortlist of respondents who are “able to demonstrate their ability to provide the required services to the required standard.”
Once respondents are shortlisted they will then be invited to participate in the Request for Tender (RFT) process.
The DBCDE has outlined in the documents that only those with “relevant experience” in lead advisory services will be considered.
“Only Respondents with relevant experience and expertise in providing Lead Advisory services relating to large complex transactions or projects, over a tight timeframe should respond,” the document stated.
The closing date for expressions of willingness to tender to the advisory role is May 19th, with the government hoping to finalise those who expressed their tender by June 16th.
“It is envisaged that the successful Tenderers(s) will commence work on the NBN implementation study immediately after the selection process is completed, subject to the conclusion of suitable contractual arrangements with the Department.”
“Responses to the REOI will be evaluated to compile a shortlist of prospective service providers able to demonstrate that they have the capability to perform the required tasks.”
In conducting the evaluation of EOIs the government has stated that the following criteria will be assessed:
- Service delivery and management;
- capability;
- capacity;
- probity and accountability;
- and financial viability.
It has also been made clear that the DBCDE may not just hire one person or company, stating in its request that multiple tenders may apply as one.
Just who is applying remains unknown, and whether the government will remain “open and transparent” in the RFT process is also unknown.
Late last night the ‘topic of the day’ segment on Tony Delroy’s ABC Night Life was all about the National Broadband Network (NBN). The show was in the format of talkback, enabling listeners to call in and voice their opinion. I’ve never called a radio station before so thought I’d give it a shot and voice my opinion. Attached is an MP3 of what I had to say.
Ever wondered where the Government came up with the figure of 4.7 billion dollars for a National Broadband Network?
Page 47 of Telstra’s Digital Compact & National Broadband Plan document, that’s where.
At CommsDay Summit’s 2009 annual dinner the industry decided that a consortium was most likely to win the tender for Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN).
With 34.1 percent of the industry deciding a consortium, a staggering 29.4 percent said nobody was going to win the NBN, suggesting a denouncement due next week from the Minister for Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy.
The results were formed from a survey of readers of the popular CommsDay newsletter and magazine, mostly of whom are staff members of Australian ISPs and equipment providers. Many other questions were asked including what the industry thought about Senator Stephen Conroy’s ISP-level filtering scheme. 48 percent of those surveyed believed the policy formed a new Orwellian state and that it should be abandoned, whilst 26.63% thought it was a policy that was well-intentioned but remained technically unachievable.
When it came to how the industry was dealing with the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) 44.1 percent said they were expanding into new markets, 28.6% were re-negotiating with suppliers and 17.8 percent were dealing with no crisis at all.
So if the NBN does in fact get built, what method of access will be used? That’s another question that was posed to the industry who favoured Fibre To The Node.
The Department for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has refused Tech Wired access to documents containing information regarding the National Broadband Network.
Received just yesterday was a 17-page document containing several reasons as to why the Government will not release The Panel of Experts’ Report detailing suggestions for a winning NBN tender.
You can download the 17-page report here.
Nikki Vajrabukka, Acting Assistant Secretary told Tech Wired:
“I decide that the Report is wholly exempt under section 34 and section 36 of the FOI Act and therefore it is not to be released”.
Section 34 details the release of Cabinet documents under the Freedom of Information Act. The images below shows why a Cabinet document can not be released:
Since when did the Experts’ Panel Report become a cabinet document? According to the 17-page report, it refers to letters sent out to the panel members which suggest they:
“…provide its recommendations to the Government”
The report also states a press release from Senator Conroy saying:
“…the Government is now considering the Panel of Experts’ Report”
Nikki Vajrabukka decided that “the Government” should be taken to mean “the Cabinet” and therefore a refusal to the report.
As to section 36? As the report is an internal working document described below in the image, it is also refused release.
You may note that release is granted if the document is in the public’s interest, but of course the Department denied that on the grounds that:
“…the factors against disclosure of the Report outweigh the factors in favour of disclosure of the Report. That is, disclosure would in my view be contrary to the public interest. Having regard to the contents of the Report, I have decided the Report is wholly exempt under subsection 36(1).”
It’s clear as to why the government don’t want anyone knowing what’s in the report. With journalists speculating left, right and centre, why not take an evidence based approach I thought? Though, it seems I was left with a dead parrot.
So what did we learn?
Tech Wired learned that:
“The Minister [Senator Conroy] will make the final decision on the outcomes of the RFP process following consultation with Cabinet and Cabinet agreement to any proposed legislative changes”
We also learned that the ACCC’s separate advice will be attached to the Panel of Experts’ Report as part of the NBN process and consultation with Cabinet.
As to what remains unknown is the day Senator Conroy will announce the winning tenderer, will it be CommsDay? With Kevin Rudd out of town, many say not, but if that’s the case it’ll be past Conroy’s time (stated in Hansard) of:
“By March”.
Steve Dalby, iiNet's Chief Regulatory Officer
After talks with iiNet’s Chief Regulatory Officer, Steve Dalby, iiNet has agreed to cover the costs for Tech Wired Australia to continue to pursue the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) under the Freedom of Information Act for documents it wont release before tendering, relating to the Nation’s National 4.7 billion dollar Broadband Network.
With the National Broadband Network a hot topic at the moment, Senators in Parliament are starting to worry that Senator Stephen Conroy won’t deliver. Read more
