The government has introduced a bill today aimed at preventing any future sale of the NBN.
A joint statement by prime minister Anthony Albanese, finance minister Katy Gallagher and communications minister Michelle Rowland said the network should be kept “in public hands”.
They said the bill’s introduction reflects a commitment at the last election “to deliver accessible internet for all.”
“The Coalition rushed to declare the NBN ‘complete’ so they could put it on the block for sale – selling out Australian consumers and regional communities,” the three Labor members of parliament said.
“This legislation will ensure the NBN is owned by who it belongs to – the Australian people.”
In the days before Christmas 2020, the then Coalition government declared the NBN “built and fully operational”, a necessary step in order to set NBN Co and its network on the path to privatisation.
At the time, there was no further commitment to run a sale process, in part due to time-consuming additional conditions that need to be met before a sale can be contemplated.
These include a Productivity Commission inquiry, a parliamentary joint committee review of the commission’s report, and ministerial and parliamentary approval – and these conditions remain in-force.
The text of the government’s bill [pdf] shows the intent is simply to repeal sale provisions in the NBN Companies Act, revoking the conditions – and therefore the legislated pathway – to a sale.
“Parliament’s intention is that the National Broadband Network is operated by NBN Co,” the revised Act would state.
“Under provisions called the Commonwealth ownership provisions; the Commonwealth must retain ownership of NBN Co.”
The government said – contentiously – that “keeping the NBN in public hands will lock in affordable and accessible high-speed internet for all Australians for generations to come.”
While NBN Co has tempered price increases of late, its special access undertaking (SAU) agreed with the competition regulator effectively locks in price increases over an extended period of time.
Albanese added that in addition to affordability, the government wanted to ensure that upgrades to the present NBN infrastructure – replacing copper with fibre – continued.
Rowland added: “Communities across Australia have told us that the job of upgrading the NBN is not complete, which is why we’re investing in more fibre and fixed wireless upgrades.
“Australians don’t trust the Coalition not to flog off the NBN just like they did with Telstra, resulting in higher prices and poorer services, especially in the regions,” she said.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU), representing NBN workers, welcomed the move.
“If passed, this bill will ensure that Australians will not be threatened with massive price hikes and service quality deterioration that would inevitably occur should this vital piece of our nation’s public infrastructure be sold to the highest bidder,” CWU national president Shane Murphy said in a statement.
Shadow communications minister David Coleman told parliament that he was yet to be briefed on the bill’s contents, but once this occurred, the opposition would provide a formal response.