Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Communication policy
Economics, then a public parliamentary inquiry, then draft legislation attracting
bipartisan support. 33
TheNBNwasaresponsebyanewLaborgovernmentfrustratedaboutthestate
of play in fixed line broadband. All three of the main tools of communications
policy were deployed. The legislative changes that opened up the local telecommunications
market to new players in the 1990s had not generated rapid takeup
of high-speed broadband. Successive governments offered to provide money
by way of co-investment with Telstra to build a ‘next generation network’ but had
been unable to agree terms. Better broadband was an important element of Labor’s
pitch in the ‘Kevin07’ election campaign which emphasised ‘the future’ to contrast
Rudd and his agenda with ageing incumbent John Howard. Even more frustrated
with the state of Australian broadband after two years in office, Rudd announced
theNBN,awhollynew,state-ownedinstitutionthatwouldbuildthemainlyfibre
network itself, as well as new constraints on the infrastructure others could build.
This was a striking return to the days of infrastructure monopoly that had ended
with such policy fanfare just over a decade earlier, effectively a renationalisation of
thelastmileofthefixedlinenetworkconnectingexchangestocustomers. 34 At the
2010 federal election, the expensive commitment to an all-fibre network reaching
more than 90 per cent of Australian households and business premises was a
decisive policy for independent members of parliament representing traditionally
conservative-held country seats. It persuaded them to support Labor ahead of the
Coalition, enabling Prime Minister Julia Gillard to form a minority government.
An analysis of the selection of NBN early release sites and voting patterns at the
2007, 2010 and 2013 elections found significant political economy dimensions to
this big public intervention into infrastructure planning: the selection process was
‘skewedupforpotentialpoliticalgains’andtheheavyswingagainstLaborinthe
2013 election was ‘highly mitigated in the NBN early release sites’, although the
authors acknowledge their research method identifies correlation, not necessarily
causation. 35
A further example of a complex communications policy demonstrating the
challenges of long-term planning and implementation in a fast-changing and
politically charged field was the migration of TV broadcasting from analogue to
digital transmission. Formal policy reports were produced in the 1990s by the
broadcasting regulator (then the Australian Broadcasting Authority); major
packages of legislation were passed in 1998 and 2000; a formal review of the
policy was undertaken by the Productivity Commission as part of a wholesale
reconsideration of broadcasting law; 36 large amounts of money were provided
over many years to fund new equipment required by the ABC, SBS and country
33 Productivity Commission 2002, 41.
34 Given 2010.
35 Tooran and Farid 2017.
36 Productivity Commission 2000.
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