Expert panel all agree with new NBN from Rudd

The recent recommendations made by the expert panel are exactly why the Government U-turned on their decision for the National Broadband Network says Professor Reginald Coutts.

The report on the tender for the NBN, which since deciding to build the network itself the Federal Government has chosen to repress, was co-authored by Coutts, a Professor at the University of Adelaide and one of the National Broadband Network’s (NBN) six expert panelists.

Claims that the recommendations from the expert panel have been deviated from significantly by the Government’s new policy has been sparked by the suppression of the report.

The new NBN policy from the Government is, however, “consistent with what we as a panel recommended,” said Coutts.

He added “There’s nothing that is inconsistent with what the panel suggested.”

Within a month of receiving the tenders in the panel felt that none they reviewed for the Government were good enough, revealed Coutts. He said “[It was] over Christmas and into the first part of January.”

What had been proposed in the initial tender process by the Government he described as “weird” and went on to say that he felt that Ruddstra was a far better choice.

Coutts said “The previous process, I thought, was rather weird. They [the Government] had one inquiry looking at the two per cent and the previous process looking at the 98 per cent. I always took the view that really you had to address 100 per cent.”

He did, however, feel that if not just to plan an improved strategy the tender process was still a necessity.

He said “People put substantial effort into the proposals and there was some good stuff in there. It was really instrumental [to] get proposals from quite different parties. That helped the genesis of us saying that it had to be a much bigger game-changing decision than was previously envisaged.”

The Government was also forced to put forward a bolder decision than the plan for 12 Mbps because of the global economic crisis he said.

Coutts added “Governments, it doesn’t matter who they are, they tend to make incremental decisions, and they’re not into brave decisions. The financial crisis meant you really needed the policy vision. It wasn’t just about how things are going to look in the papers; it had to be a decision that recognised that this is a key change needed in the industry worldwide, not just in Australia.”

Source – ITNews.com.au