Interesting comments from yesterday's Senate debate (quotes from...

Interesting comments from yesterday's Senate debate (quotes from Hansards) - from coalition senators. Sorry about the length.


Senator Williams:

The negotiations on this legislation to separate Telstra have been going on for months and months. I do not know where they are up to. When Minister Conroy let the cat out of the bag accidentally, I think the government was offering $8 billion and Telstra wanted $30 billion. There is a long way between $8 billion and $30 billion. I do not know where the negotiations have progressed to since then.

(NB - I understand TLS have recently tabled their 3rd submission)

Senator Fisher:

We have not got an implementation study. What have we got? We have got lots of megabucks being paid to NBN Co. CEO, Mike Quigley, and the ministers mate, Mike Kaiser. There have been lots of megabucks and not one new megabit. What have we got? We have no implementation study but plenty of questions from the governments own experts. Watch those experts, Minister, because they can turn on you if you do not heed their advice. Reg Coutts is a member of the governments expert panel. You know that report, Minister, the one that you have not shown us yet either. Professor Coutts said in the media recently:

There has been worryingly little discussion of how the 10 per cent of the population not covered by the fibre network will get their broadband.

Professor Coutts went on to say:

I and many of the community are frustrated at the lack of progress in planning services for the 10 per cent who are beyond the NBN footprint. I do not understand why it has generated so little discussion, either in industry or in the community.

Be careful, Minister, who you pick because they can turn if you fail to heed their advice. The minister has repeatedly shoved aside the critical answers to the critical questions in his now all but infamous implementation study.

If the Parliament passes this legislation we think Australias investment standing could be significantly diminished. Investors, particularly international investors, will perceive substantially heightened sovereign risk if the Australian Government can act arbitrarily in this way.

Synstrat Managements submission said they considered the bill to be legal trickery and an unethical way for the government to conduct its business. So why should we be surprised that Minister Conroy and Rudd Labor are persisting with a bill for which there is no case when that bill is simply bad for rural and regional customers?

An ACCC submission to the governments regulatory reform paper of June 2009 said no specific legislative changes are required to address competition concerns in relation to the allocation of spectrum. So why should we be surprised about Minister Conroy persisting with a bill for which there is no case?

Really, the only case for the bill is to save the National Broadband Network and to save the ministers ministerial face. It is all about the NBN, stupid. Contrary to the governments claims that the bill is about enhancing competition and delivering better and more affordable services to consumers, several of the witnesses to the recent Senate inquiry, for example, are in little doubt about the purpose of the legislation. Again, Maple-Brown Abbott say this bill is a high-risk strategy to deliver the NBN. It is simply a stalking horse for the National Broadband Network. This bill is all about the NBN, stupid. It is a cover for the lack of action thus far on the National Broadband Network. What have we got so far on the National Broadband Network? If there is an implementation study, we have not seen it. Indeed, we are not even sure that we will see it at all. No, there is no implementation study that we know about, Minister, but there is some sort of study by NBN Co. itself. Senator Conroy previously told us that the implementation study would work through the detailed network design and rollout schedule for the NBN and the extent of coverage that will be achieved. So the key issues are network design, rollout schedule and the extent of coverage that will be achieved, amongst other things. Interesting. Presumably NBN Co. has got sick of waiting for your implementation study, Minister, because NBN Co.s Mike Quigley says NBN Co. is seeking its own answers. He said last week:

Were looking at the engineering tasks: how do you get this built, how do you define the product, how do you do the network architecture?

That is sounding like some of the things at the very least that Minister Conroygood on you!has shot home to the implementation study. It sounds suspiciously like, if nothing else, the ministers promise that the implementation study will work through the detailed network design for the NBN. Mike Quigley of NBN Co. says the NBN Co. study will look at:

... how do you get this built ... how do you do the network architecture?