LAST week, the Rudd Government announced a new national broadband network. The announcement has already copped much flak, but my concerns run deeper. Our Government has broken its own rules and promises, applied double (or no) standards and made false and misleading statements.
Last October, in a speech ironically titled "Bringing Transparency to Nation-Building", Kevin Rudd announced guidelines governing how his Government would make key decisions on approving and financing infrastructure projects.
Rudd raved about the guidelines, saying it was critically important that decisions be based on objective analysis and evidence. He insisted that "there must be a serious cost-benefit analysis" and warned that guidelines aren't "much use if they are not implemented". Six months later, he completely ignored them.
While the guidelines were not applied to the Government's old fibre-to-the-node plan, some might accept this, reasoning that an election promise is sacred. But the "new" plan far exceeds that promise. It's an entirely different project. It uses fibre-to-the-premises technology, not FTTN. Its capital cost is "up to $43 billion" - triple that of the old plan - of which the Government will fund at least 51per cent, and quite possibly 100per cent, v the old plan's maximum $4.7billion. Yet no cost-benefit analysis was done. Read more.