Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network, I present the committee's report entitled Review of the Rollout of the National Broadband Network—First Report.

In accordance with standing order 39(f) the report was made a parliamentary paper.

by leave—Through its first six-monthly review, the committee broadly considered various issues arising from the NBN rollout, including competition issues arising from the establishment, operation and pricing of the NBN and the impact of access, service delivery and economic development on regional and remote Australians with a focus on Broken Hill and the surrounding region. The committee also briefly examined the binding definitive agreements between NBN Co. and Telstra and NBN Co. and Optus.

The political debate around the NBN is obscuring the fact that the NBN once built will be an asset in the financial books of the taxpayer. An initial spend on any asset—anything from a house to business investment— can lead to a much larger return in the future if the asset is built efficiently and effectively and if private equity is engaged in the right way at the right time. With that in mind, this report flags that the committee will be exploring this matter further—that is, the committee will seek to satisfy itself about the government's view of where the points of entry are for private investment alongside public investment and to make sure maximum return on the government's investment is secured on behalf of Australian taxpayers.

In terms of performance scrutiny, if the committee is to properly provide parliamentary oversight of the NBN, it needs to have at hand some agreed key performance indicators and measures to examine. The committee was expecting to have received in-depth NBN rollout performance information by its mandated reporting date so that it could report against them. However, on 7 July 2011, the shareholder ministers wrote to the committee advising that these performance measures would be provided by mid-September 2011. This timing is unfortunate because it means the committee is unable to report against NBN rollout performance in its first report. Some committee members, arguing the committee is akin to a board of directors, were keen for the committee to be given quarterly or monthly reports from NBN Co. The majority of committee members, however, recognised that the committee is not a board of directors, that its parliamentary oversight role is broader and that, as its reporting requirements are twice yearly, performance measures reported by NBN Co. should be likewise.

A final theme to emerge in the evidence received to date is the question of just how NBN-ready government and its agencies are. This was also a key theme of the recent report, titled Broadening the debate, about the role and potential of the NBN by the House Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications. This committee agrees with its infrastructure and communications committee colleagues on this consideration and urges government to consider both reports with that in mind. While the focus of many has been on the nine-year complex engineering build of the NBN or on the size of the capital expenditure for the NBN, a number of critical secondary policy considerations need to be prioritised by the government for the NBN to deliver maximum value. Many of these were addressed in the infrastructure and communications committee's report and will continue to be pursued by this committee. These include issues such as: Australian content and copyright law, individual privacy and national security, taxation administration, government use of the internet generally, and timely and relevant data collection opportunities that now present themselves.

Taking into consideration these findings, in its first report the committee made five recommendations: (1) the government and the NBN Co. provide the committee with NBN rollout progress reports every six months, no later than three months before the committee is due to report to the parliament; (2) government agencies take preparatory measures for receiving and working with the NBN so that there is a streamlined transition for government service delivery with the introduction of the NBN; (3) the NBN Co. publish the impact on costs and timing of the rollout of the National Broadband Network, taking into consideration any time delays from reaching a binding definitive agreement between NBN Co. and Telstra and between NBN Co. and Optus, including the time taken for the decision to increase the points of interconnect from 14 to 121 as determined by the ACCC; (4), and importantly, the government publish a detailed statement outlining the productivity, jobs and competitive benefits of the impact of the rollout of the NBN on competition at the wholesale and retail levels, including the impact of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruling to increase the points of interconnect; and (5) the government publish the time frames for the rollout of the NBN for regional and remote areas and investigate the impact of the transition from current technology to the NBN's satellite technology with the aim of negating any potential reduction in service, if applicable.

The committee's resolution of appointment requires it to report once only this year, by 31 August 2011, which it did do out of session. Due to the full range of issues, including the many mentioned, the committee will again report to the parliament before the end of the year. Thereafter we intend to report in June and December on a six-monthly rotation and have asked for the resolution of appointment to be changed accordingly. The committee's second report will examine the agreed performance information pending from the government, further work on private sector engagement for the NBN in both the wholesale and retail sectors, workforce issues and the government's readiness for NBN. With several critical agreements due to be resolved in the coming months, such as the NBN Co. agreement with Telstra, which at this stage is expected to be considered by Telstra shareholders on 18 October, the committee can also then examine these matters in more detail and report again at the end of the year.

The Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network is one of the largest committees in Australian parliamentary history. Currently it has 57 participating and full voting members. This sizeable membership of the committee demonstrates the commitment of all parliamentary colleagues to better information communication technology for all Australians, as well as a high degree of political interest in the NBN more specifically. I thank all committee members for, above all else, focusing on Australia's need for speed in the development of ICT over and above all other policy or political considerations. I also thank the secretariat for its work to date on what is a very challenging public policy oversight role. I commend the report to the House.