Rural Australians may be a step closer to discovering why the previous Government secretly changed a bid process which gave nearly a $1 billion to the OPEL consortium for broadband services it still hasn’t delivered, nearly eight months later.
The Full Bench of the Federal Court of Appeal today allowed Telstra's appeal and overturned the earlier judgment by Justice Graham. This means the Government will now provide Telstra with the documents it has been asking for since August last year.
Telstra launched the action after the previous communications minister, Senator Coonan, refused to release documents that could explain why her government altered the size and purpose of funding available under the Broadband Connect program.
The program was originally a $600 million initiative to provide broadband to new rural communities for the first time, yet the Government awarded nearly $1 billion to the Optus/Elders consortium to duplicate services that already existed.
Telstra’s Group General Counsel, Will Irving, said Telstra is now set to receive access to the documents it requested last year.
“This is a good outcome because it may take us one step closer to knowing what went on behind closed doors, and then being able to assess whether more formal action is warranted” Mr Irving said.
Dr Phil Burgess, Telstra’s Group General Manager of Public Policy, said Telstra is pleased the new government has agreed to release the documents about the former minister's $1 billion pre-election gift to Optus.
“Taxpayers expect transparency when it comes to how $1 billion of their money is spent, and shareholders expect to know why the former government intervened in a competitive market with public funding for OPEL,” Dr Burgess said.
“OPEL is now eight months old - and still no network, no rollout plan, no personnel and no management. Hopefully, this decision will be the first step in understanding how this billion-dollar boondoggle ever came to be.
“By contrast, with a few days' notice, and zero contribution from taxpayers, Telstra last week expanded high-speed broadband to 2.4 million more Australians.”
A further hearing is set down for 17 March to work out a process to deal with access to certain documents.