Turnbull to defy Senate order to produce NBN report
The Coalition government has indicated it will release the NBN Co strategic review before the end of the year, but will defy a motion from the Senate for Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to table the review by Monday December 9.
A spokesperson for Turnbull confirmed that the government yesterday received the strategic review put together by NBN Co under new executive chair Ziggy Switkowski over the past 60 days. Turnbull has said the review would reveal the true state of the company and the rollout and advise on the best direction forward.
Following calls from Labor for the Coalition to release the document, Greens Communications spokesperson Scott Ludlam will today put forward a motion in the Senate calling for Turnbull to table the document before Monday December 9, but Turnbull's office has already indicated it will not be released by that date.
"The report still needs to be approved by the NBN Co board next week. The government expects that the report will be released by the end of the year," the spokesperson said.
As had been flagged by Switkowski last week, the document will likely be heavily censored.
"NBN Co has many sensitive commercial relationships and negotiations ahead of it, not least of which with Telstra, Optus and the various construction partners," the spokesperson said.
"Accordingly the Strategic Review of necessity contains material which is commercial in confidence and which NBN Co would earnestly request not be published."
The government will seek advice on what parts of the report should be redacted before releasing the report to the public, the spokesperson said.
In Question Time today, Turnbull argued that NBN Co was becoming much more transparent under his oversight, with the company now publishing weekly reports on the progress of the rollout, including a previously undisclosed figure of the number of premises that have been passed by the network but cannot yet order a service, such as apartment blocks, and shopping centres.