Eighteen failed broadband plans from the Coalition: Wrong, Labor, Wrong

A claim we hear repeatedly from Stephen Conroy and Labor Parliamentarians is that the Coalition had eighteen failed broadband plans.

For example, on 25 June 2008 Conroy put out a media release headed ‘National Broadband Network jeopardised by Opposition Vandalism’, in which he stated: “During its 11 years in office, the previous Government presided over 18 failed broadband plans.’

He repeated this claim in a media release dated 30 March 2010, headed ‘Coalition opposes high speed broadband.’

The same claim is trotted out by Labor backbenchers: for example in a blog posted by Michelle Rowland posted on the ALP website on 17 February 2011.

So if they say it so often, it must be true, right?

Actually, no: it’s not an accurate statement.

The original source for the claim appears to be in Labor’s 2007 election policy statement, which lists the following eighteen programs:

·         Telecommunications Action Plan for Remote Indigenous Communities (2002);

·         Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme (2003);

·         National Broadband Strategy (2004);

·         National Broadband Strategy Implementation Group (2004);

·         Coordinated Communications Infrastructure Fund (2004);

·         Demand Aggregation Brokers program (2004);

·         Metropolitan Broadband Blackspots program (2004);

·         Broadband for Health Initiative (2004);

·         Broadband for Health Pharmacy program (2004);

·         NBSIG Australian Government Action Plan (2005);

·         Clever Networks program (2005);

·         Broadband Connect Subsidy program (2005);

·         Broadband Connect Infrastructure program (2005);

·         Communications Fund (2005);

·         Broadband Blueprint (2006);

·         the Broadband Guarantee (2007).

 There are three big problems with Labor’s claim.

First, they can’t count correctly.  Several of the programs are double counted.  For example, the National Broadband Strategy (2004) included subsidiary elements including the Coordinated Communications Infrastructure Fund, the Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme and the Metropolitan Broadband Blackspots Program.  The National Broadband Strategy Implementation Group was the body which oversaw the National Broadband Strategy – it was not a separate program. 

Secondly, Labor has made no attempt to justify its claim that the programs it has listed failed to achieve their objectives.  When the programs are examined in more detail, it is clear that Labor’s claim is not correct.

For example, the Coordinated Communications Infrastructure Fund allocated $23.7 million to fund specific broadband infrastructure projects to improve the delivery of health, education and government services in remote areas.  Amongst the 13 projects funded in 2005 were:

·         a fibre and wireless deployment in Port Lincoln combined with wireless backhaul to Port Augusta in South Australia;

·         a broadband solution for 5,000 people from Wadeye, Palumpa, Peppimenarti and Daly Rivers in the remote north west communities of the Northern Territory; and

·         a mobile wireless broadband network for use by breast screen vans and other users in 15 Victorian towns including Wangaratta, Shepparton, Echuca, Swan Hill, Ballarat and Hamilton.

To take another example, the Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme was a program to incent internet service providers to offer higher bandwidth services in rural and remote areas at prices comparable to those available in metropolitan areas.  The program, which came to an end when funding had been exhausted, was assessed by the Auditor-General as follows:  The HiBIS/BC Stage 1 programs have achieved their objective of providing broadband services to regional Australia at prices and functionality comparable to those in metropolitan areas. The programs have also promoted competition among broadband service providers and effectively targeted those areas in regional Australia with the most need.

Thirdly, and in some ways most remarkably, one of the programs that Labor claims failed is the Broadband Connect Infrastructure Program.  Under this program, the Howard Government entered into a contract with a private sector provider (a joint venture between Optus and Elders) to build a wireless broadband network in rural and remote Australia.  Labor cancelled this contract in early 2008, after Stephen Conroy had repeatedly promised while he was Shadow Communications Minister to honour the contract. 

This program did not fail: it was cynically cancelled by Labor for political reasons.  Had it been allowed to proceed, hundreds of thousands of Australians in rural and remote locations would be receiving services today – using exactly the same technology and radiofrequency spectrum that NBN Co will use when it finally begins delivering wireless services at some unspecified  point in the future.

Of course, if there is one broadband program which failed unambiguously, it was the policy which Labor took to the 2007 election: to build a national fibre to the node network, in a joint venture with a private sector partner, for a cost to the taxpayer of $4.7 billion.  The competitive selection process conducted by the Rudd Government failed in late 2008 when Telstra refused to participate, and the policy was junked in April 2009 when Labor moved to a completely new policy to build a fibre to the home network for a cost of $43 billion.

Broadband policy is complex enough without false claims being made about what has and has not worked.  So it is most unfortunate that Labor repeatedly claims that the Coalition had eighteen failed broadband programs.  The claim is baseless.  But as the old maxim goes, ‘A lie undenied becomes the truth.’  That appears to be Labor’s aim in continually repeating this claim.