Communications
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7th September, 2013 Labor’s NBN is arguably the biggest scandal of all. Their promise to deliver 100 mb per second broadband speeds to 98 per cent of Australians beginning in 2008 is in tatters. The NBN fails to go close to delivering on any of its targets and when Labor left office the cost had blown out to at least $60 billion. Two million people, mostly in regional areas, have been excluded from the promise and the completion date had blown out by at least a decade. Meanwhile Labor bungled the analogue TV switch-off, leaving many without television. They axed the black spot mobile phone program, leaving many without mobile phone coverage, while Telstra wound back its capital program. |
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6th June, 2013 NBN plans to connect 12,554 premises to wireless broadband in June, but even if this target is achieved it will mean that only 31,291 premises will have access by 30-6-2013 which is only 45% of its target. NBN blames tall trees for blocking signals as part of the reason for the slow roll out (The Australian) |
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30th May, 2013 Asbestos scares in thousands of old Telstra pits stalls NBN fibre optic cable roll out. Comcare tells Senate Estimates that the "Commonwealth will be liable" |
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27th May, 2013 Total cost of digital TV changeover estimated to have reached $1.9 billion. Government sale of spectrum achieves just $2 billion - $1 billion less than expected - and parts of the spectrum were left unsold because there were no bidders (The Australian) |
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23rd March, 2013 Government attempts to limit media freedom of speech does not pass Parliament after a chaotic week of debates |
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19th October, 2012 NBN spent $3.8 million on advertising in 2011-12 but expects total revenue of just $2 million Only 32,295 premises have been passed with NBN cables - 3,295 in the last two months at a rate of 53 per day but the NBN corporate plan requires 6,800 to be passed every day (Senate Estimates) |
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24th September, 2012 Gillard Government admits only 54,000 households will be connected to NBN by June 2013, after six years in office, instead of the 511,000 it originally promised |
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23rd May, 2012 NBN Co reveals that 82% of $9 billion of contracts so far awarded for the NBN have gone to foreign controlled companies (The Australian 23-5-12) |
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5th April, 2012 Government announces NBN rollout of optic fibre to 3.5 million households will be under construction by 2015. Of 11 federal electoratesnot included in the program, 10 are helf by Liberal or National MPs. Rollout in Brisbane shows intense activity in the electorates of Wayne Swan, Kevin Rudd, Craig Emerson and Bernie Ripoll, but little building in neighbouring Coalition held electorates (The Australian) |
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3rd April, 2012 Auditor General releases damning report on Government's handling of $223 million Australian Television Network. Separate review panels twice recommended that the tender be awarded to Sky News but Cabinet intervened and awarded the tender permanently to the ABC. Cabinet had earlier intervened to take the tender process away from Foreign Minister Rudd and give the process to Communications Minister Conroy. Auditor General says "tender process... brought into question the Government's ability to deliver such a sensitive process fairly and effectively" |
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2nd April, 2012 Government pays $2 million compensation to Sky News for costs incurred in its bungled Australian Television Network tender process (The Australian) |
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15th March, 2012 Tatachilla Lutheran College near Adelaide was told they have to pay $200,000 to connect to the NBN even though the school is only 400 metres from cables which connect the region to the network |
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16th February, 2012 The first 4000 people in Australia to be connected to the NBN (Smithton Scottsdale and Midway Pt in Tasmania) have now been told they have been connected using technology no longer being used and are stuck in the slow lane and missing out on next generation faster, better value packages (The Australian) |
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5th January, 2012 The NBN reports that only 2315 premises are using the NBN's fibre optic cables down from the 35,000 connections promised for 2011. A further 1500 are subscribing to wireless. NBN is already employing 1000 staff on an average salary of $155,000 (Queensland Country Life 5-1-12) |
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7th November, 2011 Government abandones its bungled Australia Network TV 10 year tender process, reported twice won by Sky News and extends the ABC contract until March 2012, one year after the the contract was to be let, blaming leaks which compromised the process |
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18th October, 2011 More than three-quarters of contracts awarded by NBN are ging to foreign companies ata time when the Government is demanding that mining companies buy Australian (The Australian) |
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11th October, 2011 The Economist reports that Australia will spend $US 3,338 per household on its broadband network compared with $155 in USA, $55 in UK, $979 in New Zealand, $26 in Japan and $717 in Singapore (The Australian) |
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3rd October, 2011 The cost of promoting NBN launch in Armidale was $138,474.05. Only seven customers had signed up for the free trial out of 3,000 homes in the area serviced. The NBN company will be employing 1,427 staff by 31-12-11 on an average wage of $145,000 per employee. The company is paying $512 per sqm for office space in Sydney and $535 per sqm in Melbourne The Government shuts down its digital television satellite rollout scheme because it had failed to obtain necessary state approvals and concerns about asbestos exposure (The Australian) |
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14th September, 2011 Government orders media inquiry following criticism of bias in some newspapers by Labor and The Greens |
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1st September, 2011 NBN staff are expected to take home an average $145,000 per year (double average earnings) creating new fears of NBN cost blow outs |
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12th August, 2011 The NBN will be given power to bypass state and local laws to connect premises and roll out cables (The Australian) |
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5th August, 2011 Julia Gillard switches on first inner city NBN but only 14 people were connected (The Australian) |
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24th June, 2011 Government pays Telstra $11 billion to move its customers to the NBN and to use its infrastructure. Government also pays $800 million to Optus to move its customers to the NBN creating a giant new monopoly. Telcos also agree not to promote their wireless services as an alternative to the NBN |
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19th May, 2011 PM opens first NBN mainland site in Australia but there are only 7 subscribers. NBN has 784 staff but but only 600 customers - all non paying (The Australian) |
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10th May, 2011 Government to borrow another $18.2 billion to pay for its NBN which is expected to run at a loss of $4.3 billion over the next four years $376.5 million to provide free set top boxes to pensioners to receive digital television prior to analog switch off Voluntary Internet Filtering Grants Program axed ending Labor’s promises to provide mandatory internet filtering |
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5th April, 2011 NBN construction head Patrick Flannigan quits with industry sources saying his resignation is a protest over the bungled tender process |
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4th April, 2011 Internode tells Senate Inquiry that the NBN proposed corporate wholesale charges are ten times higher than existing services |
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31st March, 2011 Labor Government abandons its tender process for the $12 - $14 billion NBN contract (after tenderers had spent millions of dollars each preparing their bids) throwing into further doubt the viability of the Government's broadband plan. |
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22nd February, 2011 Gillard Labor Government admits that country communities which do not have access to optic fibre cable will not be able to access new e-health services |
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3rd February, 2011 Federal Labor Government admits that at least 28% of its NBN will be overhead cables (including its entire trial network in Townsville) and therefore vulnerable to cyclones, fires and other disasters (The Australian) |
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25th January, 2011 President Obama announces a plan to deliver high speed wireless broadband services to to 98% of US households at a cost of $7.2 billion. The US taxpayers will pay on average pay on average $24 each to deliver broadband compared with $1,600 per taxpayer in Australia (State of the Union Address) |
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20th December, 2010 Business plan for NBN concedes that the project is not commercial and requires a $27.5 billion equity contribution from the Government on top of $13.4 billion debt. Completion date has blown out to 2020 Government will need to impose anti cherry picking laws to protect NBN from competitors in high volume / low cost areas Country consumers will pay more becuase the Government's uniform pricing plan does not cover back haul cost |
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10th December, 2010 Government announces abandonment of plan to require every new home built after 1-1-11 to be connected to NBN fibre cable |
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30th October, 2010 NBN Co has 207 staff of whom 47 are on salaries of more than $300,000. Labor identity, Executive Chairman Mike Quigley is being paid $1.862 million |
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26th October, 2010 The US plans national broadband offering speeds of 4mbs at a cost of $7 billion. Australia proposes 100 mbs - 100 times more expensive than the home of the internet (Turnbull - House of Representatives) |
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26th October, 2010 Cost of Labor's $43 billion NBN spread over 7 million households is $6,000 each, plus wiring cost of at leas $300 per connection (Financial Review) |
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26th October, 2010 Government says NBN will meet the cost of wiring old apartment buildings to help persuade unit owners to connect Only 18 customers have taken up an offer of 'free' broadband package with Exetel in Tasmania. Only 3 customers have opted for a $100 megabit package costing only $50 per month plus 75 cents per gigabyte downloaded (The Australian) |
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21st October, 2010 The Government confirms that only one in ten of eligible NBN subscribers in Tasmania have signed up and refuses to say what speeds have been chosen by consumers |
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19th October, 2010 Government offers $2.5 million compensation to Opel for cancelling the Opel Broadband Connect contract which would have already been delivering broadband to Australians by now |
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19th October, 2010 The Gillard Government confirms that people who do not connect to their NBN will have their fixed phone lines cut off |
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8th October, 2010 With less than 100 subscribers having signed up to the NBNs new Tasmanian services (and with official estimates of evetual take up at only 16% - 25%) the tasmanian Government announces a plan to legislate for an opt out connection system |
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24th June, 2010 Kevin Rudd deposed as Prime Minister and replaced by Ms Julia Gillard |
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14th June, 2010 OECD report shows the number of broadband subscribers in Australia fell last year |
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7th June, 2010 Only 16% of Tasmanians say they will connect to the Government's new NBN network over the next fifteen years |
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10th May, 2010 Industry says only 17% of premises expected to take up the Government's new Tasmanian high speed broadband placing the cost of Tasmania's NBN roll out above $20,000 per connection |
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16th April, 2010 NBN chief Mike Quigley says it will be up to 30 years before the Government's broadband network would break even |
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18th February, 2010 Minister Conroy attends commencement ceremony for laying a fibre optic cable at Mt Isa - two months after the project was to be completed (the cable merely duplicates an existing Telstra cable) |
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9th February, 2010 The National Broadband Network employs disgraced former Labor Member of Parliament and Labor Party official Mike Kaiser, to a $450,000 a year government relations job, without calling for applications, on the recommendation of Kaiser's factional ally, Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy |
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5th February, 2010 At the beginning of an election year, the Rudd Government reduces licence fees for commercial television stations by $250 million over two years. |
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4th February, 2010 The Auditor General criticizes the Rudd Labor Government for ignoring public service advice which led to a waste of $30 million on the failed National Broadband Network tender OECD calls for a more rigorous cost benefit analysis for Labor's $43 billion broadband network |
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31st December, 2009 Labor axes free internet content filter service - removing protection from inappropriate internet material to families |
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15th December, 2009 The Rudd Government backs down on its election promise to introduce mandatory filtering on all unlawful and inappropriate online material on websites at the service provider level. Only 'refused classification' material is to be filtered and that is already banned |
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1st December, 2009 The Rudd Government's National Broadband Network company says most consumers will settle for slower broadband speeds and lower costs rather than the Government's preferred 100 megabits per second speed |
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27th August, 2009 The Rudd Government's own infrastructure adviser, Sir Rod Eddington warns that the Government may be unable to secure private sector investment in infrastructure projects, including the $43 billion national broadband network |
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9th June, 2009 Of the $400 million interest earned by the Communications Fund that was supposed to be quarantined to improve regional communication services, only $75 million has been allocated to projects - $375 million has been transferred to the Building Australia Fund for unrelated projects |
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4th June, 2009 The Rudd Government will spend approximately $66 million on communications and advertising for the switchover from analogue to digital television, the budget has blown out by 400% |
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12th May, 2009 BUDGET Labor has cut $23.1 million from the Australian Broadband Guarantee program |
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8th April, 2009 More than 1000 towns with populations of less than 1000 people will not be covered by the Rudd Government's $43 billion broadband scheme |
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6th April, 2009 Labor's broadband strategy is in tatters after its $20 million tender process fails. The Rudd Government has broken its election promise to deliver fibre to the node broadband services to 98% of Australians. Now 2 million Australians will not be covered by Labor's latest broadband proposal to cost $43 billion |
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20th October, 2008 The Government's proposed national broadband scheme is now at least a year behind schedule and three years behind the previous Government's plan |
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26th August, 2008 Australian Communications and Media Authority suspends its program to test for digital TV black spots in non metropolitan areas |
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13th May, 2008 Labor steals $2 billion from the Communications Fund to boost its "Building Australia" slush fund |
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28th April, 2008 Labor closes down the CDMA mobile telephone network, forcing more than 1.5 million Australians to change mobile handsets |
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2nd April, 2008 The Rudd Government terminates the OPEL broadband project designed to provide wireless broadband to regional communities without any alternative in place |
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29th February, 2008 Labor threatens the future of the $163 million Australian Broadband Guarantee which subsidises internet access for people who cannot access a metropolitan comparable service |
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22nd February, 2008 Labor admits it does not know how to deliver its $4.7 billion broadband commitment. Labor is seeking extra funding from private investors |
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18th February, 2008 Labor introduces legislation to raid the $2 billion Communications Fund set aside by the Coalition to bring new technology to rural and regional areas |
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6th February, 2008 Labor abolishes Broadband NOW designed to provide technical assistance to broadband customers |
