Conroy admits to false NBN claim

Source: The Daily Telegraph

COMMUNICATIONS Minister Stephen Conroy has admitted making a false claim about the National Broadband Network as he tried to defend the project over allegations it faces massive cost blowouts.

Senator Conroy told ABC Radio this morning that the Coalition was a "fact-free zone" but wrongly claimed the NBN's corporate plan was audited by the Auditor-General as he attempted to justify its price tag.

The Coalition estimates the final price tag of the NBN could more than double to $90 billion-plus, and that it will take an extra four years to complete.

The claims are made in the Coalition's broadband policy, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, which Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has promised will be released soon.

The NBN Co last year released a revised corporate plan which admitted to a $1.5 billion cost blowout in the capital cost of the project - to $37.4 billion - with a total cost to taxpayers of $44.1 billion.

But, using modelling from key telcos and finance industry analysis of the NBN Co's 2012 corporate plan, the Coalition has estimated the project will take four years longer to finish and potentially cost an extra $45 billion to complete.

Senator Conroy told the ABC that the coalition was relying on misleading statistics and data to try and create a scare campaign against the project.

"We have nearly a million homes under construction at the moment,'' he said.

"The corporate plan, audited by the Auditor-General, is produced each year, and what you're seeing in that corporate plan is $37.4 billion is the cost of building the NBN - not, as today the Coalition is claiming, $90 billion. I mean, the Coalition are a fact-free zone. They don't have any facts to support these claims.''

But Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull tweeted: "The NBN Co's corporate plan has NOT been audited by the auditor general.

"Conroy's statement that it has been is false and he knows it."

An Australian National Audit Office spokesman confirmed the office had not audited the corporate plan.

"We audit the financial statements so the expenditures of NBN are properly recorded,'' he said.

"While we make reference to the corporate plan, we don't audit the corporate plan.''

Senator Conroy told Sky News this afternoon he had made mistake and mis-spoke, meaning to say the annual report and not the corporate plan.

"I meant to say the annual report,'' he said.

Senator Conroy told the ABC of the $90 billion price tag alleged by the opposition: "They have no analysis behind these claims; no analysis or facts behind $90 billion, no analysis or facts behind 2025 as a finish date. They're just making false claims about the National Broadband Network."

It comes as Prime Minister Julia Gillard denied the cost for the National Broadband Network will blow out to more than $90 billion.

Asked if the figure is in the ballpark of what the major infrastructure project will eventually cost Ms Gillard responded simply: "no".

Ms Gillard was pressed on the matter at a press conference in Shanghai in China. It was the last question she took.

The Australian Industry Group says the $90 billion figure, if true, is "extraordinarily high" and it wants the government to conduct a rigorous cost-benefit analysis.

"It's a project that the business community broadly supports, as long as it's done properly and with the proper costings in place," AIG boss Innes Willox told ABC radio on Monday.

Member for Blair Shayne Neumann; Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy; and the Member for Oxley, Bernie Ripoll, in Goodna where the National Broadband Network rollout is ramping up.

The government should have conducted a cost-benefit analysis from the beginning, but releasing the true figures now would do no harm, he said.

"It can only instil further public confidence in the rollout of a broadband network which we support," he said.

Mr Turnbull told The Daily Telegraph that Australia had some of the most expensive communications costs in the developed world.

He criticised the government for handing the network builder, NBN Co, a blank cheque.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy denies the NBN will cost as much as $90 billion, accusing the coalition of running a scare campaign.

The policy was costed every year by the auditor-general's office, which determined the price tag was $37.4 billion.

Senator Conroy said the coalition was making baseless claims about the NBN.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has denied the cost for the NBN will blow out to $90 billion. Picture: Luke Marsden

"They rely on misleading statistics and misleading data to try and make these scare campaigns," he told ABC radio on Monday.

"What you've seen today is a classic policy-free zone claim by the coalition."

The benefits of the NBN would outweigh the costs, and revenue from the scheme would eventually be paid back to taxpayers, with interest, Senator Conroy said.

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