NBN Co banks with Westpac

The NBN Company's funds, according to its first financial report filed several weeks ago with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, are being held with Westpac Banking Corporation.

The sparse report was signed by NBN Co's company secretary, Alisa Taylor, an associate of Canberra law firm, Meyer Vandenberg Lawyers, on 20 October 2009, and the company's chief executive, Mike Quigley, on 2 September 2009.

The operating result for the two-month period was a $139,329 deficit. The report also revealed that the NBN Co had secured $10 million in equity, with 10,000 shares. It noted that the risks the company faced were minimal given funding would be sourced from the Federal Government. It's believed the company has also since secured a further $60 million in equity from the government.

According to the report, one million of that is covered under the Federal Government's Guarantee Scheme introduced last September in response to the financial crisis.

The report, audited by the Australian National Audit Office, covered the period between 9 April 2009 — two days after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that the government had rejected all proposals for the first NBN process — and 30 June 2009.

The report describes the NBN Co Ltd's principal activities as being "to build and operate a National Broadband Network to deliver telephony and high speed broadband to Australian homes, schools and businesses". It also details the government's decision on 16 July 2009 to establish a joint venture with the Tasmanian Government-owned energy utility, Aurora Energy, for the construction of the fibre-to-the-home network in the state to 200,000 homes.