Shame on Labor for this $43 billion shambles
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/in-depth/labors-nbn-rushed-chaotic-says-audit/story-e6frgai...
It is a disgrace - a complete scandal - that the former Labor Government spent so many billions so lightly on such a dud scheme with such little thought:
[A] landmark audit has found the policy process for developing Labor’s National Broadband Network was “rushed, chaotic and inadequate”.
... former Productivity Commission head Bill Scales has found the NBN Co set up to develop the high-speed internet network was given a job that only a “well-functioning, large and established” telecommunications company could do under the tight timetables for the rollout…
Mr Scales said he was told that some of those involved in the first 12 months of the NBN Co were “making it up as they went”, while others related a “salutary anecdote” that, in the early days of NBN Co, ‘‘all we had (to guide us) was the press release and a bunch of business cards"…
The audit examined the original “Mark I” NBN policy — based on 2007 election promises by then opposition leader Kevin Rudd of $4.7bn public funding towards building a fibre-to-the-node network — and the vastly more ambitious $43bn Mark II policy that replaced it....
The [NBN Mark II ] plan got just 11 weeks’ consideration and “there is no evidence that a full range of options was seriously considered”.
“There was no business case or any cost-benefit analysis, or independent studies of the policy undertaken, with no clear operating instructions provided to this completely new government business enterprise, within a legislative and regulatory framework still undefined, and without any consultation with the wider community,” the report says.
In other findings, the audit says full cabinet did not consider the policy until very early on the April 2009 morning it was announced, and its role was to “rubber-stamp” a decision by the strategic priorities and budget committee of cabinet.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/in-depth/labors-nbn-rushed-chaotic-says-audit/story-e6frgai...
