Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Rudd Labor government’s Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, has been caught out not only misleading Senate estimates but also using the probity card when it suits him to avoid legitimate scrutiny of his flawed national broadband tender process. Senator Conroy claimed he was in the middle of ‘live commercial negotiations’. How strange that the bidding period has not even closed and potential bidders do not have the vital existing network information upon which to develop a proposal! Otherwise, as many already believe, Labor’s national broadband network process is nothing more than a political fix and Senator Conroy is certainly doing plenty of politicking when he should be focusing on sound public policy.

We know Canberra based TransAct was directed by Senator Conroy’s probity advisers not to meet with the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications for a scheduled 23 April briefing on the general topic of broadband technologies and services for fear that it may create the impression of preferment or advantage. This was a bipartisan parliamentary committee, with no member of the executive or of the decision-making process involved, seeking only a general brief on the subject well within its function—and it was a probity risk! We know Senator Conroy pulled out of a 9 May meeting with CEOs from the G9 group of telecommunications companies believed to be considering a bid as the Terria consortium. He said he pulled out of that meeting for probity reasons as well. We also know that in estimates Senator Birmingham asked Senator Conroy:

You can give an assurance that since the probity advice was received a day or two prior to the 9th of May you haven’t met any prospective bidders on matters relating to the NBN?

To this Senator Conroy answered categorically, ‘Yes.’ Senator Conroy must have thought he had been too direct and needed a little bit of wriggle room. He later added:

I do have ongoing meetings and discussions with many, including potential bidders, about other matters that are not to do with the National Broadband Network and I’m not suggesting I won’t be in the presence of them.

We now know that is false, and the evidence is on the minister’s own website for the whole world to see. On 21 May he met with representatives of state and territory Labor governments, including the Treasurer of the Tasmanian state Labor government, Michael Aird, at an Online and Communications Council meeting. In fact, Senator Conroy chaired the meeting. Topics that were discussed under title headings in the meeting communique, which is also on the minister’s website, included ‘National Broadband Network’ and ‘National Broadband Network strategies for effective use and development’. The media communique even presents, in black and white, conclusions specifically about the NBN tender process. You cannot have it both ways, Senator!

We know that the minister and his Labor colleagues must have talked about these topics. What they have said on the record is one thing, but what was actually discussed during the meeting and during the breaks? There are comments about open access, about last-mile infrastructure and about structural separations—issues that go to the very heart of the tender process. But, if you are a Labor mate, probity does not apply, and I am sure all the other potential bidders wonder just what has happened and just what this political fix is going to turn up next.