Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

As I have repeatedly said about the timing of the national broadband network, the most critical issue is to ensure that all of the relevant information is available to the proponents who wish to make a bid. Those opposite ran a process when they were in government which included no directions about the content, no directions about the speed and no directions about the technology. They just said, ‘Will someone please build a broadband network?’ That was the extent of the expert panel process that was put in place by those opposite.

On the other hand, we have committed to ensuring that all of the information that is required for the bidders to make a full and comprehensive bid is available. That is why in February we passed legislation to ensure that all bidders had that information. As those opposite are more than aware, not all of that information was actually available despite the best efforts of all of those involved to supply the information that the government required and which the industry had said they needed in order to bid. So we then set out to get that information, unlike the process run by the former minister opposite—who continually interjects—which was a complete farce, a complete rort and delivered nothing.

As a result of our process, all of the information required has now been received. On 3 September, I announced that the last of the network information requested from carriers had now been collected and was available to national broadband network proponents. From this date, proponents had 12 weeks to consider the network information before lodging their proposals on 26 November 2008. The steps that the government has gone through to ensure the information is available demonstrate our commitment to a genuinely competitive process. We recognise that this information is important because you cannot build a broadband network without this information.