Coalition, Greens to demand NBN documents

The coalition and the Australian Greens will use their numbers in the Senate on
Wednesday in a bid to make the government immediately release key national broadband
network documents.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was on the defensive on Tuesday as he
rejected calls to have the $43 billion rollout subjected to a Productivity
Commission probe.
The architect of Labor's contentious infrastructure program faces another battle on
Wednesday as the Greens, a supporter of the NBN, demand more details on the
financial viability of the project.
Senator Conroy has previously said he would release "elements" of the business plan
developed by NBN Co - the company rolling out the network.
But the opposition's broadband spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has indicated he will
support the Greens' motion to have the NBN business case tabled in parliament in
November.
Australian Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam's motion will also call on
the government to release its response to a $25 million study into the rollout.
"The government never had their formal views on record and it's time they did,"
Senator Ludlam told AAP.
"The minister has been crowing, 'the business case is wonderful' ... what use is it
looking like they're trying to hide what taxpayers are funding with $43 billion?"
Consultant McKinsey-KPMG gave the government a report in May, recommending full
public ownership until the rollout was completed.
It also projected that the network would deliver the government a commercial return
of $40 billion within the next 15 years.
The federal government has rejected opposition demands for the Productivity
Commission to prepare a cost-benefit analysis on the NBN.
Mr Turnbull said Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Senator Conroy had something to hide.
"The only reason she doesn't want it to go to the Productivity Commission, and this
is exactly what her minister has been telling the independents so we know this is
what she really thinks, is that they believe the Productivity Commission will find
it is not a good project and it has been poorly conceived," he told Sky News.
A spokesman for Mr Turnbull later told AAP the coalition would vote with the Greens
in the Senate on Wednesday to demand the release of key NBN documents.
Even if the move is successful in the Senate, the motion would be unlikely to pass
in the lower house considering that the independents, who helped Labor form
government, have rejected a previous attempt by Mr Turnbull for the NBN Co to
publish a 10-year financial plan.
Senator Conroy rejected the call for a cost-benefit analysis, arguing it would only
mean Australians had to wait longer for faster internet.
"If (the Liberal-Nationals) were serious about ensuring that Australians got access
to the world's best class broadband network, they would be supporting the national
broadband network," he told parliament.
Independent MPs Tony Windsor and Andrew Wilkie have rejected the coalition's call
for an NBN cost-benefit analysis call, arguing it would fail to account for future
technology.
Mr Windsor and fellow independent Rob Oakeshott voted against coalition amendments
on Tuesday to have the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission supervise the
structural separation of Telstra as the NBN was rolled out.
The independents and the Greens are against a coalition push to have a joint select
parliamentary committee set up to scrutinise the NBN, when a Senate committee
already exists.