No impact from govt change: NBN chief

The head of the company created to build Australia's national broadband network says
he expects any change of government to have no impact on NBN Co Ltd.
Speaking at a business lunch in Sydney on Friday, NBN Co chief executive Mike
Quigley says a coalition victory at the upcoming federal election is not something
he or his staff were spending any time fretting over.
"Frankly, I see no impact at all," Mr Quigley said in response to a question.
"Nobody in the company is sitting around worrying about what would happen in such an
eventuality so we'll just take it a day at a time."
An implementation study into the NBN - by consultants McKinsey and KPMG - released
on May 6 gave the NBN the green light.
The $25 million study found the NBN would virtually pay for itself within 15 years,
and could be rolled out to more Australians for less than its $43 billion price tag.
The opposition has been a vocal critic of the proposed network and flagged scrapping
it if elected to government at the federal election, due towards the end of this
year.
Opposition communications spokesperson Tony Smith said after the release of the
implementation study that the NBN was "reckless, irresponsible and a risky Rudd
adventure."
"We won't go down this path in government," Mr Smith said on May 6.
A recent Newspoll published on May 4 showed the coalition was ahead of Labor for the
first time since 2006.
The McKinsey/KPMG report said the NBN could be completed without the participation
of Telstra Corporation Ltd, but it urged the government to strike a deal with the
nation's largest telco.
The study argued the NBN deployment would be more cost-effective if Telstra's
existing infrastructure was used.
Mr Quigley said he could not comment on any potential negotiations, and did not
refer to Telstra by name during his address or the question-and-answer session.
But he said NBN Co's business case modelling took into account a "range of scenarios".
"We haven't made any assumptions one way or the other on some of the issues," Mr
Quigley said.
"We have just analysed the different cases.
"In almost all of those, the financial viability is quite real."
Mr Quigley sidestepped the issue of cherry picking - telcos potentially undercutting
NBN Co's uniform wholesale prices in highly populated, low-cost areas.
He said it was a matter that was best addressed by government policy, adding that he
expected a response "in due course".
"At that time, I am sure we will be supportive of the policy," Mr Quigley said.
"It's not up to me or the company to be suggesting what the answer to that issue is,
I think it is a policy issue."
Mr Quigley said there had been "quite a close collaboration" with the consultants
and it was pleasing both they and the company arrived at similar conclusions about
the project.
He said calculations done by NBN, which he described as "reasonably sensible and
conservative", showed the project would be earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) positive before the end of the main
construction phase.



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