Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in writing, on 25 November 2010:

(1) How many (a) mobile phones, (b) blackberries and (c) I-Pads are currently allocated to the (i) Minister, and (ii) the Minister's ministerial staff.

(2) In respect of mobile phone usage between (a) 3 December 2007 and 24 November 2010, and (b) 24 June 2010 and 24 November 2010, what was the total cost for (a) the Minister, and (b) the Minister's ministerial staff.

(3) For each month since December 2007, what was the cost of mobile phone usage for each mobile phone account allocated to the (a) Minister, and (b) the Minister's ministerial staff.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

(1)

(2) (a) The total cost of mobile phone usage for the Minister between June and November 2010 inclusive was $6 325.77. I am advised that the information requested for the period 3 December 2007 to 31 May 2010 is not readily available. I am also advised while it may be possible to obtain additional billing information from the telecommunications service provider, the information is not disaggregated into a format that could be used to easily extract the information to answer the honourable member's question. The time and resources required to manually extract the data is significant and cannot be justified.

(b) The total cost of mobile phone usage for the Minister's ministerial staff between June and November 2010 inclusive was $18 799.50. I am advised that the information requested for the period 3 December 2007 to 31 May 2010 is not readily available. I am also advised while it may be possible to obtain additional billing information from the telecommunications service provider, the information is not disaggregated into a format that could be used to easily extract the information to answer the honourable member's question. The time and resources required to manually extract the data is significant and cannot be justified.

(3) For the total mobile phone usage costs for the Minister and his ministerial staff between June and November 2010, I refer the honourable member to the responses to questions 2(a) and 2(b) above. I am advised that the information for the months prior to June 2010 is not readily available. I am also advised that the monthly bill for the Minister and his ministerial staff includes both mobile phone usage costs as well as the costs for data downloads using turbo cards, blackberries and an I-Pad and that the resources required to manually extract the required data is significant and cannot be justified.