Greens chalk up win on NBN oversight

By Brett Winterford on Mar 2, 2011 10:10 AM
Filed under Telco/ISP

UPDATE: Scope of Joint Parliamentary Committee finalised.

The ALP Government has been forced to make concessions with regards to oversight of the National Broadband Network after a long negotiation with the Greens party.

The Greens claim that the Government has agreed to form a Joint Parliamentary Committee to oversee the roll-out, and as per the Greens’ demands, the ruling party will not enjoy a majority on the panel.

Last night, Leader of the House Anthony Albanese moved that the Parliament form a 16-person oversight committee for the NBN, with seven ALP members or Senators, seven Coalition members or Senators, and two non-aligned or independent members of Senators.

The Committee will be chaired by independent member Rob Oakeshott.

In terms of scope, the Joint Parliamentary Committee will monitor the NBN roll-out and whether it meets Government set objectives around deadlines and take-up rates, network performance and service levels, complaint-handling, NBN Co's risk management, governance and "any other matter pertaining to the NBN rollout that the Committee considers relevant".

The Committee will also have the power to "call for witnesses to attend and for documents to be produced" by NBN Co.

The Committee will deliver a report to both houses of Parliament every six months, the first of which is due 31 August 2011.

In a statement released to the press on Tuesday, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam took credit for negotiating more transparency and governance around the $37 billion project.

"We have spent the summer negotiating broader terms of reference, removing the proposed Government majority on the committee and ensuring that it gets to work right away, rather than waiting until July before getting started," Ludlam said in a press statement.

"The Greens' approach to the NBN is to use the tools of the Parliament to provide ongoing transparency, as a way of building confidence in this important project.

"The committee will give the industry and the broader community a window into the financial and engineering decisions underpinning the National Broadband Network."

Last week, the Greens negotiated amendments to NBN Co's governance arrangements so that the company would be subject to Freedom of Information laws.

The amendments passed the lower house this Tuesday, in what Greens MP Adam Bandt described as "a big win for transparency and openness in the rollout of high-speed broadband in Australia".

The bill was to be examined by the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications, which was due to report on March 16.

John Hilvert contributed to this story.

Updated on March 2 to include information on the freedom of information amendments and comments made in Parliament on Tuesday night.

Greens' Senator Scott Ludlam.

4 comments in this discussion

"Senator Ludlam does seem to exhibit fair and reasonable qualities. Could he explain how the ACCC, which is supposed to be the champion of competition, takes no action against a government monopoly ..."

By sydneyla

Tags

greens, nbn, joint parliamentary committee, national broadband network, majority

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Comments: 4

mad1k5 Mar 2, 2011 1:07 AM	I think the "ALP has been forced to...." Is a bit harsh, considering the previous government (The Howard Gov) actually had more people on the Senate Select Committee (including Ian McDonald, Senator Nash etc). "remove a proposed Government majority" So ya, a little more transparency in the articles please.
Ezy2Confuze Mar 2, 2011 9:53 AM	"forced to make concessions" is the reason why I think a lot of people just don't trust any of the parties these days. There's just so much going on with political donations - which you just know is a case of "you scratch my back..." - that there's just no way any party can say they are trully independant.
Mordd Mar 2, 2011 11:22 AM	"Forced to make concessions" is misleading im sorry. The fact they won't have a majority on the panel like "tradition" dictates is due to the fact they don't enjoy a majority in the house of reps either. Look at the makeup of the panel: with seven ALP members or Senators, seven Coalition members or Senators, and two non-aligned or independent members of Senators. Gee thats very similar numbers in balance to what the house of reps look like isn't (except the number of independents for an exact balance would probably be 1 not 2). The government is being forced to make no more concessions here than they chose to make when they opted to form a coalition government with the greens and independents. So the Brett and Ezy2Confuze stop making misleading statements as if the makeup of this panel is somehow shocking other than the fact this is the first time in a long time australia had a split parliament therefore the makeup of all parliamentary committees is likely to be different than the traditional government majority so they can completey control debate model. Time for some more truth and transparency in the articles here instead of misleading BS, no offence.
sydneyla Mar 3, 2011 9:55 AM	Senator Ludlam does seem to exhibit fair and reasonable qualities. Could he explain how the ACCC, which is supposed to be the champion of competition, takes no action against a government monopoly who uses threat of unfair regulation to remove competitive opponents? Also, will this committee make absolutely sure and guarantee that this NBN government monopoly does not at some time in the future move into the retail sector of the NBN and with the assistance of government regulation cause the destruction of all retail opposition?