Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in writing, on 21 March 2011:

In respect of the decision made by the Government, announced on 7 April 2009, to replace its fibre to the node policy with a fibre to the home policy, when it was claimed that the Government 'acted on the advice of an expert panel, containing within it the Secretary of the Treasury, expert advice also from the ACCC about this thing being the right way to go', is it a fact that on 18 May 2009 a member of the expert panel, Prof Rod Tucker, said 'I just want to make one thing clear: the panel of experts was never asked to and didn't make any judgement call on the issue of investment for a fibre to the home network.'; if so, is Prof Tucker's statement accurate; if so what advice did the Government base its decision upon.

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:

The Panel of Experts was appointed by the Government in April 2008 to assess proposals received by the Commonwealth in response to the Request for Proposals (RFP) to rollout and operate a National Broadband Network for Australia and provide a report to the Minister. Following an extensive assessment process, the Panel of Experts advised the Government that none of the national proposals offered value for money. Instead, the Panel of Experts encouraged the government to invest in fibre technology, supplemented by next-generation wireless and satellite technologies, however, it did not consider costings for such a network. Preliminary costing was carried out by government agencies, drawing on advice from a range of sources including technical advisers who have extensive expertise in the telecommunications market. Detailed costing was undertaken in the course of the NBN Implementation Study.