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Photos: The 10 moods of Stephen Conroy

Fresh into opposition and relishing every minute. The best of three hours of Senate hearings on the NBN, condensed into 10 frames.

on Nov 29 2013 6:55AM

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CHESHIRE CAT CONROY. The former communications minister obviously holds the former DBCDE assistant secretary for NBN and fibre rollout regulation, Philip Mason, in high regard. It was one of at least two occasions where Senator Conroy hoped to coax Mason to join his departmental colleagues in giving evidence.

THIRSTY CONROY. More work (and admiration) for the former DBCDE's Philip Mason. "Mr Mason, you want to come forward and help?" Conroy questioned. The answer, again, was no.

SALESMAN CONROY. Fresh from a batch of questions about whether Telstra's copper network was really a good buy or not, Senator Conroy attempted to close a sale of his own. "I've got a harbour bridge that I'd like to sell you next. Any interest?" he asked. Unfortunately the property had to be withdrawn from sale after attracting no bids. [The Senator has quite a fondness for a lanes-on-the-harbour-bridge analogy when differentiating between FTTP and FTTN].

CONROY, TIME TRAVELLER. One of several attempts to have questions answered now, rather than after the conclusion of the NBN review initiated by now Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

EVIL EYE CONROY. Enough said.

FLIPPANT CONROY. The Department of Finance representative, Robin Renwick, was given a relatively easy passage, owing to the small amount of time he'd been in the role. But he wasn't let off the hook entirely. After telling Senator Conroy that NBN Co hadn't "raised any issues" around their financial projections in weekly meetings with the new government and agencies, Senator Conroy raised the prospect that Renwick be more proactive. "Well, I thought the job of the meeting was for you to raise questions, not for you to just sit there. What, they just come in, give you a piece of paper you say thanks, see you later?"

INCREDULOUS CONROY. The questions turned to whether gigabit speeds will be possible on a fibre-to-the-node network. That the thought was even entertained by those opposite him sparked a rush of incredulity. "Could they [NBN Co] offer a product that it's not possible to deliver on fibre to the node? Could they offer a product that it's just not technically feasible to offer?"

JOVIAL CONROY. A long pause followed as the panel researched start-up dates for 250Mbps, 500Mbps and 1Gbps fibre products on the NBN. Senator Conroy couldn't resist a joke about the glacial pace. "We're still having difficulty" finding the information, NBN implementation special adviser Mark Heazlett said. "Are you on wireless?" Conroy joked.

NO NONSENSE CONROY. Exploring any anomalies in publicly-presented figures on cost per premise of rolling out fibre eventually resulted in a postulation that the question had been answered. Senator Conroy didn't think so. "No, you've talked a lot. Would you like me to ask it to you again and perhaps we can stay precise on the question rather than answering questions I haven't asked?"

PROFESSOR CONROY. Senator Conroy's love of physics is well known to most NBN watchers. A logical test for those laws is the range of services that can be supported on an FTTP network versus one that is based on FTTN. Just how many NBN fibre products could run on FTTN is "yet to be determined", if one believes the Department of Communications. Senator Conroy doesn't: " It's a laws of physics question. It's not a yet to be determined question. The laws of physics have been determined a few hundred years ago, so I'd like a truthful answer… and yet to be determined is not a truthful answer."

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