NBN Rip Off

Now the PM has released a 50 page carefully edited business case summary on the NBN with all the juicy bits being held back. The government has also agreed to provide the senator Xenophon with a briefing by NBN CO boss Mike Quigley without the need for a confidentiality agreement. The Govt is claiming a saving of $5 billion Dollars due to a deal with Telstra. What they failed to explain is what Telstra will get for there co-operation? Telstra is a business it does not share its infrastructure through the goodness of it’s heart. This still meant a $37 billion cost for the NBN network paid by us and yet information is not being released to us because of some sort of need for confidentiality by NBN Co. If NBN Co is a company, then why are we paying for them to come in to existence??? Since when does a Govt. use $37 billion dollars of our money to roll out a Network NBN Co will control and we cannot have access to the full business plans, budget documents, and side deals along the way due tothe information being commercial in confidence. Where is public accountability and transparent Government gone???

This Govt. is full of spin, they are telling us “We’ve determined that it’s possible to publicly release some of the material, but we have been very careful and the material being released will not cause any uncertainty (about the NBN).”

She said the entire business case could not be released for reasons of cabinet confidentiality.

What rubbish, it is our money being used and they will not release information that could lead to uncertainty about the NBN ?? Are people going to accept this AGAIN??? It is time the Independents, stopped kissing up to the Government and started doing their job. Senator Xenophon started to, but seems to have ignored what is under his nose, they have released certain info but he has almost decided to vote based on its release and not what is in the documents, and the obvious omission with regards to this Telstra deal?

The government had also agreed to a number of measures, including ongoing oversight of the NBN roll-out by a new parliamentary committee to be chaired by a lower house independent MP.

It will report every six months during the roll-out, expected to take eight years.

Again we can expect to see more independents selling their soul for a job with significant Govt. sweeteners, so the process will not be independent at all.

The Prime Minister said the document outlined the “sorts of products that people will be able to get through the National Broadband Network. So that’s a new piece of information.”

It is important to realise that the NBN is not delivering new access to products but access to products that would have been able to use a less costly broadband rollout. The NBN network is being pushed at a unprecedented rate, and by now we should have learnt a lesson that every program this Government introduces too quickly end up costing us hugely. In this case we will be handing it over to NBN Co, that will monopolise the providers and will charge us handsomely for the network we paid for rolling out.

Nick Xenophon should hang his head in shame, he made himself seem independent by fighting for transparency, then voted with the Govt. before he had time to digest what was in the document and what was left out.. It cannot be commerce in confidence when we are footing the bill ????