Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I want to respond to some of the comments that have been made, particularly those of Senator Bilyk. I do not know exactly what she said, but I do know what is happening in Tasmania and that is that there is no business plan and no detail about the exact costs to the user of that broadband service or about the estimated costs of this rollout in Tasmania. It was estimated at $700 million, and Senator Conroy and, indeed, the Prime Minister are advocating this $100 million injection. Senator Conroy could not detail what has happened to the other money, when I asked him a question in this chamber the other day. Where is the remaining money from the $700 million? He talked about a $100 million investment. What has happened to the other $600 million and who is paying for it—is it federal or state? We do not know. He does not know what the take-up rate is either and yet all of this is meant to happen magically in July. This is a government that is in the never-never with its plans. It is flying kites; it is hot air. There is no detail—and the devil, of course, is always in the detail. These are critical decisions. Would any business in its right mind, small or large, proceed with such a large investment with no business plan? We ask time and again for a business plan, but they do not have it.

I also want to refer to the NBN and the RFP, the request for proposals process, which is deemed an absolute flop, a dud and a big-time, total and shocking waste of taxpayers’ money. The Auditor-General’s Report No. 20 of 2009-10, Performance audit—The national broadband network request for proposal process: Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, was tabled in this chamber some weeks ago. There was a confirmed, on the public record, $30 million wasted—$17 million of that was taxpayers’ money. The department’s cost was shocking and the $13 million from the proponents and others has, unfortunately, been wasted. The Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit held a public hearing today with the Secretary of the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy regarding this important rollout. The audit report and the hearing have been quite revealing. From the advice that we received today in answer to questions from Mr Georgiou, Ms Ley, me and others, it seems quite clear to me that the department informed the minister responsible and he was made fully aware of all the key risks and their significance for a successful outcome to the RFP process. We were advised by the department this morning that that information—that advice—was given to the minister right throughout the process, including in and around September, when the Frontier Economics report was given to the department. That report indicated the level of compensation, literally in the billions of dollars, that would have to be paid to Telstra if one of the other bidders was successful in the tender process.

They have taken that on notice and have advised that they would get back to the committee with their answer—but they did say that, according to them, the minister was advised. They have taken that on notice to check and confirm that that is the case. I have asked them the time and date when that advice was given to the minister. The minister was in here not so long ago saying, from my understanding and from my recollection, that he could not recall exactly but he did not think that he was formally advised until around January or February this year. Let us watch this space and see exactly what happened when. We want to know. I asked for a breakdown of the $17 million cost to the taxpayer, including the cost of the external consultants and others. There was a risk to the Commonwealth. That was identified to the government and specifically to the minister, according to the secretary of the department and the other official at the hearing today. The government is and potentially could be in a lot of hot water. It is already in hot water, but the hot water could be getting extreme—even hotter still. (Time expired)