Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Senator Conroy) to a question without notice asked by Senator Birmingham today relating to the Australia Network tender process.

Another day; another Labor government fiasco—this time concerning the tender process for the release of the new Australia Network, which provides for broadcasting of Australian news, current affairs and entertainment into our region and beyond. This tender is only worth $223 million or so, and I say 'only' because compared with many of the other spectacular Labor government cases of maladministration—things like the National Broadband Network, the Building the Education Revolution program, pink batts and so forth—this is relatively small fry at only a quarter of a billion dollars or so.

However, this program, at this time, has the potential to represent extremely poor value for money for Australian taxpayers unless this process is brought back on track. The Senate is entitled to know what the government is doing to bring this process back on track. The answer given by Senator Conroy today to Senator Birmingham—and I used the word 'answer' advisedly—was one of the briefest answers provided to any question asked in this Senate throughout the entire year.