Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Senator Conroy) to questions without notice asked by opposition senators today, relating to Mr Mike Kaiser and other matters.

Only in a government led by Mr Rudd could two ministers who have so clearly demonstrated their incompetence, carelessness and confusion continue in office. We all know now that Mr Garrett should not be in the position that he is in. But quickly Senator Conroy is overtaking Mr Garrett as the minister who should do Australia and his government a favour by resigning from office. Today we have had a very clear example of Senator Conroy’s unsuitableness for the job that he currently holds as the communications minister.

Can you imagine the minister, who of course employed Mr Quigley as the NBN chief, sidling up to Mr Quigley and saying: ‘Oh, look, there’s a mate of mine in the Labor Party in Queensland who might be good for the job of government relations person. I don’t know what you’re offering for the job, but perhaps you should have a talk to him’? Can you believe that Senator Conroy did not have any idea of what the salary might be when he recommended Mr Kaiser for the job? Certainly no sound or reasonable person could possibly believe what Senator Conroy has said about that.

In spite of Senator Conroy’s clarification after question time, it is incredible that a government with this sort of operation would allow 40 per cent of its jobs not to be advertised—not to be open to selection in the normal manner. As Senator Minchin pointed out with his question, this company is paying wages on average in the $350-$400,000 market, and the people being appointed are not being properly assessed, unless you class membership of the Labor Party—membership of the upper echelons of the Labor regimes in Queensland and New South Wales—as a qualification for the job.

It interests me why a government company wholly set up by the government needs a government relations man at a $450,000 salary. The company is the government. Why does it need a government relations person? I would love Senator Conroy to explain that. In addition, not only has Senator Conroy failed with those insider jobs in NBN Co. but the NBN is grossly out of time. Nothing has happened apart from a sod turning up in Mount Isa that will mean nothing. The legislation that Senator Conroy told us was so critical to deal with before Christmas last year did not even reach the Senate chamber last year. We are in the third week of the Senate’s sitting this year and still we have no indication of when that bill will be brought before the Senate.

We then saw the scandal almost of Senator Conroy’s ski holiday in a flash resort in the United States, where he met with one of the major free-to-air television networks and not long after that, low and behold, there is a $250 million gift to those free-to-air TV companies. For all these reasons, one would think that Mr Rudd would have some concern, some real sense of risk, about the efficacy of this minister, as with Minister Garrett. It seems that the NBN saga goes from bad to worse. Senator Conroy promised us the implementation study before the end of February this year. We are waiting. We are getting close to the end of February. We learned just recently at Senate estimates that that study—which will explain everything, as Senator Conroy has said before—may not ever be made public. On all these grounds, Senator Conroy should do the right thing by his government and by Australia and resign.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I find it unbelievable that here we have the coalition raising the issues of incompetence, carelessness and confusion on the floor of this chamber in a debate to take note of answers at question time when we have the most incompetent, careless and confused economic spokesperson that we have ever seen in this place, appointed by the Leader of the Opposition, in Senator Barnaby Joyce. Do not come here talking about incompetence, carelessness and confusion. How about your leader handing over the reins of the public purse to the National Party? What an absolute joke.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, a point of order on relevance: the question was clearly directed to answers given by Senator Conroy today. Senator Cameron is way, way off the mark.

Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, on the point of order: firstly, it is the custom that debates do range widely on these questions in take note debates. Secondly, the argument put is an attack on the proposition put initially by Senator Macdonald and therefore relevance has been established. I understand there may be some sensitivity but, frankly, the questions raised in relation to competence of a minister can be answered in this debate by questioning, alternatively, the competence of a shadow minister.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have been listening very carefully to what Senator Cameron has been saying. I take your point, Senator O’Brien, that we do allow the debate to range quite widely. But, Senator Cameron, I remind you that we are taking note of answers given by Senator Conroy today and I will listen carefully as you continue. There is no point of order.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. This is quite clearly part of the attack by the coalition on the government’s stimulus package—a package that was put in place and of which NBN Co. is an integral part and a package that underpins 210,000 jobs in the Australian economy. NBN Co. is part of an initiative that will bring high-speed broadband to this country—high-speed broadband that the coalition could never deliver, high-speed broadband that is important for the productivity of this country and high-speed broadband that is being delivered by Senator Conroy and this government. The key issue here is whether we can deliver real improvements in productivity to this country and do it in a manner in which you were never able to in 11½ years of government. Your economic incompetence left this government a clean-up job of monumental proportions.

You failed on broadband, you failed on productivity, you failed on environmental issues and you failed to make sure this country was equipped to deal with the challenges of international competition and international downturns like we have had in the global financial crisis—a mob of failures across the chamber. You can change your leader, but you were a rabble before Christmas, you have a new leader now and you are still a rabble after Christmas. There is absolutely no way attacking NBN Co. is going to give you any credibility, because your credibility on economic performance is down the tubes.

Australians know that those opposite sat back for 11½ years and failed to deliver. They failed to deliver on the economy, they failed to deliver for young people and they failed to deliver for the future of this country. That is their record. And yet, when we are faced with the global financial crisis, and we take steps to make sure that we are in a position of strength for the future, including establishing broadband throughout this country, what do we get? We get carping about the wages of the executives of NBN Co. I never hear any carping from the other side when it is your big business mates taking $10 million a year out of their shareholders’ back pockets. I don’t hear any of this hypocrisy and argument then; it is all very quiet. Remember, you were also very quiet until your leader, Tony Abbott—

Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Abbott.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Abbott, sorry—had a meeting with Rupert Murdoch. Then we hear what is going on. It is all quiet on the Western Front from the coalition. Then along comes Rupert—knock, knock: ‘Mr Abbott, come and talk to me.’ And what do we get? The next day we are in here defending Mr Murdoch’s interests! Look after the big end of town. We know how you lot perform: look after your rich and powerful mates; don’t worry about the people in Tasmania who are going to get high-speed broadband for the first time— (Time expired)

Mary Fisher (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given in question time today by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy—in particular, the minister’s failure to convince the Senate and the Australian people of the government’s capacity to deliver on its $43 billion promise to build a National Broadband Network. After all, why should we doubt Minister Conroy’s say so? Why should we and the Australian people doubt it, when all that the Rudd Labor government has done so far is bungle their spending programs? NBN round 1, worth some $4.7 billion—abandoned; $30 million wasted on a bungled tender process, $17 million of it from the public purse and $13 million of it from the private purse. NBN round 1: abandoned.

Then we have $2.7 billion spent on the home insulation program, which Minister Garrett, until last Friday, hailed as a success. Of course, last Friday Minister Garrett suspended the supposedly successful program. The home insulation program—HIP—becomes decidedly un-hip: $2.7 billion on a now-suspended home insulation program. It was decidedly un-hip expenditure of Australian taxpayers’ money. And there was the $175 million proposed for the Green Loans Program. The Green Loans Program was rewritten.

So why should Australians have gained any confidence from Minister Conroy’s answers in this place today as to the government’s capacity to deliver on the $43 billion National Broadband Network, when NBN round 1, worth $4.7 billion, was abandoned; $2.7 billion on the home insulation program was suspended; and the $175 million Green Loans Program was rewritten? How on earth are the Australian people expected to have any confidence that the government will deliver on a $43 billion taxpayer spend? That is particularly so when, as Senator Macdonald reminded us, in estimates Senator Conroy failed to tell the Australian people that the government will release and make public the much-awaited implementation study for the National Broadband Network—the implementation study to which Minister Conroy has shot home the answers to life, the universe and everything.

Who is going to get what? When are they going to get it? How are they going to get it? How much will they have to pay for it? And now, what confidence can the Australian people have that the technology, once delivered, will not be outdated? After all, the recent results from Telstra show that Australians are moving more quickly than even Telstra could anticipate from fixed-line services and fixed-line broadband to something else. And yet we have a proposal from the government that no, in about eight to 10 years time they will deliver fixed broadband, in the main, when the rest of the world, including Australians, are voting with their hard lines and going mobile. As Alan Kohler said:

Telstra’s revenue from its copper network is collapsing faster than anyone expected, and faster than the company can make up …

Simon Molloy, analyst, commented in the Australian Financial Review last Friday:

You never know where the turning points are until they’ve gone past.

           …         …         …

Communications users are voting with their dollars for mobility.

That means wireless.

So, Minister, please commit to making the implementation study public, for the sake of the Australian people’s belief in this government’s capacity to deliver anything substantial with respect to their promised $43 billion National Broadband Network, particularly in the face of the aborting of NBN round 1 and the suspension of the so-called home insulation program. (Time expired)

Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers provided by Minister Conroy in today’s question time, specifically in relation to the commercial television broadcaster licence fee rebate. The position that has been put by those opposite today makes one wonder whether they do not actually understand the pressures facing the Australian free-to-air television sector and the importance of the sector or whether, in reality, they just do not care.

The rationale for the commercial television broadcaster licence fee rebate in 2010 and 2011 is the protection of Australian content on commercial television. A rebate of 33 per cent will apply to licence fees payable on revenue earned during the period 1 January to 31 December 2010 and a rebate of 50 per cent will apply to licence fees payable on revenue earned during the period 1 January to 31 December 2011.

The government makes no apology for saying that it will protect Australian content on commercial television. This will be done by offering licence fee rebates to broadcasters in 2010 and 2011. The rebate recognises the importance of the Australian content standard in ensuring TV audiences have strong levels of Australian programming. The rebate is also a recognition of the current level of licence fees in Australia compared with those in other countries such as the US, the UK and Canada and of the new technology and commercial challenges facing the sector, including the switch to digital television. This initiative builds on the government’s increase in funding to national broadcasters ABC and SBS in the 2009-10 budget to fund more Australian content. The Australian content standard requires commercial television broadcasters to produce and screen a certain percentage of Australian content, including 55 per cent of total transmission between 6 am and midnight seven days per week. It also provides for the production of Australian drama and children’s programming.

As Australia commences the switch to digital television this year, the commercial television broadcasters will play a key role in delivering the full suite of digital services across Australia. The rebates are just one part of a package of measures designed to address the structural changes facing free-to-air television at a time when media consumption habits are changing because of the rise of the internet and we are making the switch to digital television. The government’s decision to offer a temporary rebate on licence fees recognises the pressures facing free-to-air television broadcasters. Analysts have recognised that free-to-air television is undergoing a significant structural decline. In the face of structural changes and the arrival of the converged media environment, it is important that the government protect Australian content.

As the minister said today, local production is expensive; it costs around $800,000 to produce an hour of Packed to the Rafters or Underbelly. In contrast, it costs only around $100,000 to buy an hour of Two and a Half Men. PBL Media’s chief executive noted in today’s Australian newspaper that local production is expensive and that it can be turned on and turned off. He says:

We can definitely say the licence fee relief has contributed to Nine planning more confidently for more local entertainment and drama production this year and next and in 2011-12.

It will also ensure jobs for Australian actors. It is significant that in Australia we are providing for those skilled performers who will put their faces on Australian television.

Broadcasters will be required to meet their legislated local content quotas in order to receive the rebate. (Time expired)

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

I rise to take note of answers from Senator Conroy. In doing so, I refer to Senator Conroy’s actions in January, when he had a personal holiday in Colorado. He said on the public record that it was a private holiday ‘which was fully paid for by me’; yet it was revealed in the media yesterday, thanks to the good investigative journalism of Ellen Whinnett at the Sunday Herald Sun, that Kerry Stokes, billionaire businessman and part owner of Channel 7, actually provided Senator Conroy with a free lift pass. Of what value that was, I do not know, but it was paid for by Mr Stokes. Of course, this was just a month before Senator Conroy, on behalf of the federal Labor government, announced a $250 million tax cut to the free-to-air television operators.

Let’s put it on the table, let’s come clean: let’s say exactly what happened, when it happened and why it happened. What was Mr Stokes trying to gain by offering this free pass and what was Senator Conroy doing in accepting a gift of this nature in the ritzy resort in Colorado? These are questions that need to be answered, and Minister Conroy should come clean. We have already seen the example of Mike Kaiser’s $450,000 special deal as ‘government relations advisor’ for the rollout of the government’s new entity, NBN Co. In my view, it smacks of cronyism. It smacks of special deals; it smacks of special jobs for special mates.

This is the type of government we have in Australia today. It is not good enough. The public do not like it. So many promises have been made that have now been broken. We have seen so much waste of taxpayers’ money. The public are now starting to see through the spin and that there is no substance. This is the minister responsible for $30 million in a botched NBN rollout tender. The tender process went on for months and months and in the end had to be cancelled. Seventeen million dollars of that, of course, was directly in taxpayers’ money and the other $13-odd million was the tenderers putting in their best effort. The minister knew early on that the process was flawed but allowed it to continue, again abusing the process and abusing taxpayers’ money.

We have had the examples of GROCERYchoice, with nearly $10 million wasted, of the Fuelwatch debacle and of the NBN rollout tender debacle, with $30 million wasted. We have had promises like, ‘Let’s fix the public hospital system by 30 June 2009’—and what has happened? Nothing. No delivery on that promise. We have had the GP superclinics promised; they have not been delivered. The childcare places in schools have not been delivered. This is a government of empty promises. You have had the promise to cut back on consultancy fees. They are now at a record of over $1 billion over the two years of the government. They promised to cut it back $400 million. This government is a disgrace and the waste and mismanagement must stop.

On the NBN rollout in Tasmania, Senator Conroy said they were on time. What a joke! He was in Georgetown, Northern Tasmania in April last year with the full fanfare and the Premier announcing that broadband was to be rolled out in July 2009. They are one year late, and he is trying to make the case that they are on time. It is a joke. There is no business plan for Tasmania. They say it is an estimated $700 million, but they will not come clean. They are not answering questions I have on notice in the Senate demanding that they say who is paying for that $700 million—whether it is the state or federal government. We still do not know the cost to the user or the consumer. We do not know the take-up rate. There is a lack of consultation with businesses and local government on which towns will be benefited and which ones will be kept out. Ninety-five per cent of the aerial connections will be above ground. We have no contracts with the ISP; they were meant to be announced by March, so they have got eight days to do that; and there are no offers to the public. Really, the government have to come clean and advise the public or this is clearly more waste and mismanagement. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.