NBN panel did not back FttH

Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy.

The coalition has attacked the decision-making process behind the National Broadband Network (NBN) following alleged denials by the government's expert panel that it did not advise on the Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH) upgrade.

Panel member Professor Rod Tucker told an Alcatel-Lucent Sustainable Fibre Nations industry forum yesterday that the panel did not advise the government on investing in FttH technology.

“I just want to make one thing clear: the panel of experts was never asked to and didn’t make any judgement call on the issue of investment for a fibre to the home network,” Tucker said.

While fielding media questions, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the government's NBN upgrade decision was based on: “advice of an expert panel, containing within it the Secretary of the Treasury, expert advice also from the [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] about this thing being the right way to go”.

Shadow communications minister Nick Minchin again called on the government to release the expert panel NBN report, following a freedom of information request submitted yesterday.

An opposition communications spokesperson said the report's NBN recommendations should be made available and commercially sensitive data could be blacked-out.

A spokesperson for the Minister did not return media requests by publication time.

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