Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I take this opportunity to make a few remarks in relation to the report of the National Broadband Network committee because the committee has the very important function of informing the parliament of the progress of the project. I think the report fails insofar as it does not address the key issues of time, cost and revenue—the three keys to this project—in a meaningful way so that the Australian people can draw meaningful conclusions as to how the project is going in relation to the original corporate plan and in relation to its budget.

It is vitally important that the ultimate format of the report reflect this progress. As a committee of the parliament, we have a responsibility to advise taxpayers and the parliament on where the project sits in relation to its progress. My concern is that in a number of key areas the report is deficient. It provides a great deal of information, most of which is already publicly available, and it aggregates that information in a useful format as far as it goes. But there are a couple of key points which are missing. The first point is in relation to the cost of the project and the risk to which the taxpayer is exposed.

We saw the abandonment of the initial tendering process for major contracts back on 1 April this year. The NBN Co. had gone out to the market, had received prices from 14 tenderers within the industry but was unable to get a tender which met its budget expectations. That tender process was abandoned and subsequently a deal was concluded with Silcar. NBN Co. advised the deal was within the budget parameters. The committee and the parliament do not know how that was achieved. We do not know what 'within budget' strictly means. We all take a literal interpretation of what 'within budget' means, but we do not know the sorts of risks that the Australian taxpayer has been exposed to in order to meet that within the budget classification.

We may have substantial risk in relation to extension of time. We may have substantial risk in relation to industrial disputation or escalation of labour rates. We may have substantial risk in relation to the increased cost of materials. We just do not know. I think it is incumbent on NBN Co. and on the government to allow the sort of reporting which would enable the committee to do its job and to report back to the parliament on that very important issue.

On the issue of time—a vitally important issue—the report fails to be provided by NBN Co. with accurate programming information so that the parliament and the Australian people can monitor the progress of the project against the projections that NBN Co. makes, and so that the parliament and the people of Australia can be aware of any potential risks in relation to time blow-outs on the project, which ultimately manifest themselves in cost blow-outs. We do not have that sort of detailed programming information across each of the sites or across each of the individual projects within the project itself; we just do not have that detail. We have some general narrative as to which projects are progressing or which projects have been commenced, but we do not have a detailed programming document that allows the reader to sit down and say, 'Well, the work in Kiama is three weeks ahead of schedule,' or 'The work in Armidale has been completed on time,' or whatever the case may be. The reader of this report cannot determine the status of the project in relation to time.

The third point I would like to touch on is the issue of take-up rates. The report is grossly inadequate in relation to the take-up of the project. Senator Conroy has been out in the media arguing that, because only two per cent of the people in Armidale have sought to take up the NBN within a particular area, that is irrelevant with regard to the fact that ultimately there will be a switchover and ultimately those people will be forced onto the NBN—so what is the worry?

The worry is that the current take-up rates are a very good test marketing exercise and a very good indication of the likely demand for upmarket packages. If people are not rushing to get the basic package of 12 megabits per second, it stands to reason that there is not going to be a great deal of demand for packages beyond 12 megabits per second, and therefore the additional revenues necessary to underpin the project will not be received.

I think that these are three very important points that need to be addressed in ongoing reports. I certainly hope that will be the case. I certainly hope that the NBN Co. will be far more transparent in its dealings with the committee into the future and I look forward to improved information being provided to the parliament in future reports.

See this speech in context