Labor won’t stuff NBN pipeline as election poison pill: Conroy

Labor will not take a poison-pill approach by pushing NBN Co to artificially accelerate the awarding of construction contracts in the leadup to the September 14 election, communications minister Stephen Conroy has pledged.

Speaking with GTR on the NBN’s status and the party’s evolving e-government platform, Conroy dismissed suggestions that, fearing a widely-tipped Coalition election win, Labor would award larger and longer construction contracts to ensure as much of its fibre-to-the-premise (FttP) network would be deployed even well into any Coalition government’s term.

“NBN Co have taken a very responsible, business-like approach to the NBN, and have behaved properly when it comes to contracts,” Conroy said in an interview to be published in the April issue of GTR, out next week. “There could be no business justification for having contracts that lock you in for ten or even five years in the construction industry.”

Malcolm Turnbull, opposition spokesperson on broadband and communications, has committed the incoming Coalition to honouring NBN contracts that are already in place, should the party be elected in September. Turnbull launched his party’s long-awaited alternative NBN policy this week, advocating for a $29.5 billion project that would primarily capitalise upon existing infrastructure.

NBN Co’s contract management practices came under fire recently after NBN Co was recently forced to revise downward its projections on network completion, from 286,000 premises to around 155,000 premises, in the wake of revelations that subcontractors had been unable or unwilling to invest in training enough staff to complete the work.

Investigations by the Australian Financial Review revealed an “increasingly bitter relationship between NBN Co and its contractors, amid rising concerns about labour and skills shortages.”

Issues with all of NBN Co’s major contractors were arising because they were paying low rates to workers that were reluctant to commit to piecemeal work; at the same time, the reports suggest, contractors were reluctant to commit to extensive training investments for short-term contracts.

Although he conceded that it would not be “appropriate” for NBN Co to sign major new contracts during the caretaker period – between when Parliament is dissolved and the election happens – Conroy remained adamant that NBN Co would continue to focus on commercially sensible terms of engagement during months of business-as-usual in the leadup to the election.

“These are serious and credible business people on the NBN Co board,” he told GTR. “They have not and will not engage in [poison-pill] behaviour. They’ll continue their build because that’s what their mandate is, until they’re given an alternate instruction by a government – whether it’s a successfully elected [Labor] government or a newly elected [Coalition] government.” – David Braue