Evidence before the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme hints at possibility Scott Morrison knew that the infamous Robodebt scheme was unsupported by social security legislation & regulations and therefore unlawful

 

Scott John Morrison the current Liberal MP for Cook sits on the Opposition benches in the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament, holds no parliamentary party positions and sits on no parliamentary committees.

As Minister for Social Services from 23 December 2014 to 21 September 2015, Treasurer from 21 September 2015 to 28 August 2018 and Prime Minister from 24 August 2018 to 23 May 2022, Morrison had considerable influence on the creation and implementation of social security policy and programs.

Including the infamous and unlawful ‘Robodebt’ debt recovery scheme which appears to have its genesis during his time as Minister for Social Services and Marise Payne’s time as Minister for Human Services in the Abbott Government.

Christian Porter followed Morrison as Minister for Social Services from 21 September 2015 to 20 December 2017, Stuart Robert followed Payne as Minister for Human Services from 21 September 2015 to 18 February 2016 and later becoming Minister for Government Services from 29 May 2019 to 30 February 2021 responsible for Services Australia, while Alan Tudge was Robert’s Assistant Minister for Social Services from 30 September 2015 to 18 February 2016 and then Minister for Human Services from 18 February 2016 to 20 December 2017, thus all three men had a hand in refining and implementing the punitive horror that was Robodebt as envisioned by Morrison and Payne. 

Approximate tenures of assorted departmental heads during the period December 2014 to December 2021:

• Secretary of Dept. of Social Services - 

Finn Pratt (18 December 2013 to 18 September 2018)

Kathryn Campbell (18 September 2018 to 22 July 2021)

Raymond Griggs (22 July 2021 to present day)

 

• Secretary of Department of Human Services - 

Finn Pratt (September 2009 to 7 March 2011)

Kathryn Campbell (7 March 2011 to 17 September 2017)

Carolyn Edwards, Acting Secretary, Department of Human Services (September 2017)

Renée Leon (18 September 2017 to 16 March 2020)

 Name change to Services Australia -

Chief Executive Officer Rebecca Skinner (16 March 2020 to present day)

 

The commencement of successful legal actions, in an individual filing by a person who received a debt recovery notice and a class action on behalf of a group of persons receiving Centrelink pensions, benefits or allowances who had received debt notices, saw the Morrison Government end the Robodebt scheme. 

The Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme was established on 18 August 2022 and commenced its public hearings into the circumstances surrounding this scheme on 22 September 2022.

In particular the Royal Commission is seeking information with regard to the following matters:

• who was responsible for the scheme’s design, development and establishment

• why it was considered necessary or desirable

• any advice or processes that informed its design or implementation

• any concerns raised about its legality or fairness

• the use of third party debt collectors under the Robodebt scheme

• concerns raised following the implementation of the Robodebt scheme. In particular;

  • how risks were identified, assessed and managed in response to concerns raised

  • the systems, processes or arrangements in place to handle complaints about the Robodebt scheme

  • whether complaints were handled in accordance with those systems, processes or arrangements

  • whether complaints were handled fairly

  • how the Australian Government responded to legal challenges, including decisions made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal

  • when the Australian Government knew, or ought to have known that debts were not, or may not have been, validly raised

  • whether the Australian Government sought to prevent, inhibit or discourage scrutiny of the Robodebt scheme

• the intended or actual outcomes of the Robodebt scheme including;

• the impacts that the scheme had on individuals and families

• the costs of implementing, administering, suspending and winding back the scheme, including associated costs such as obtaining advice and legal costs.

On Monday 31 October 2022 the Royal Commission published Exhibit 1-0001 - CTH.2013.0012.5070_R - Advice prepared by Solicitor General to AGS re use of apportioned ATO PAYG data which in my opinion clearly shows that a competent Prime Minister, Minister for Social Services, Minister for Human Services, any other relevant ministers and their department heads should have been aware or were aware that the Robodebt debt recovery scheme that had been in operation since April 2015 was at best legally fraught and at worst unlawful in all or part of its design, implementation and compliance measures. That this situation was being discussed at some level during 2015 and 2016 and was widely known by August-September 2018.

From 24 September 2019 there was a 46-page legal opinion to that effect — written by the Solicitor-General Stephen Donahue QC, Nicholas Owens SC and barrister Zoe Maud — available to then Prime Minister Morrison, relevant ministers and department heads.

At its 31 October hearing the Royal Commission heard evidence from Victoria Legal Aid and two women who made ‘debtors’ by the Robodebt scheme.

The 1 November hearing heard evidence from:

• Principal Lawyer, Department of Social Services; and

• Former Assistant Director, Payment Review and Debt Strategy Team, Social Security Performance and Analysis Branch Department of Social Services.

At the 2 November hearing evidence was heard from:

• Group Manager, Redress Group, Department of Social Services;

• Former General Counsel, Programme Advice and Privacy

Department of Social Services; and

• Former Director of Payment Integrity and Debt Management

Department of Social Services.

Over the course of 1 and 2 November hearing days it became clear that government departmental awareness of the probability of a lack of legislative support for and flaws in the Robodebt scheme preceded that of the general public.

Matters revealed in evidence should become quite interesting in coming days, weeks and months.

The full witness list for the period 31 October to 4 November 2022 can be found at: https://robodebt.royalcommission.gov.au/system/files/2022-11/witness-list-31-october-2022.pdf

Hearing transcripts for 2 to 4 November 2022 can be found at:

https://robodebt.royalcommission.gov.au/hearings

A mainstream media perspective…….

ABC News, 2 November 2014:

...The commission, being held in Brisbane, has been hearing evidence from public servants involved in formulating the earliest legal and policy advice about the bungled Robodebt scheme that wrongly claimed hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients owed debts to Centrelink through a process of income averaging.

Counsel assisting the commission Justin Greggery KC questioned Social Services Department lawyer Anne Pulford about external legal advice the department obtained in August 2018 that raised concerns about income averaging by scheme.

The advice was sought after a decision was handed down in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal relating to Robodebt.

Mr Greggery drew Ms Pulford's attention to email comments from government lawyers about the external advice including one describing it as "somewhat unhelpful" and another which stated: "They might be able to rework the advice if this causes catastrophic issues for us but there is not a lot of room for them to do so."

He asked Ms Pulford if she appreciated "that, at that point, the department had in its possession an external legal advice which said the Robodebt scheme was not lawfully sustainable".

Ms Pulford said she didn't recall the details of the advice but presumed she did appreciate the significance.

Mr Greggery drew Ms Pulford's attention to an email she sent, noting the income-averaging approach was not supported.

"You are signalling there that this advice if accepted means the end of the Robodebt scheme," he said.

Ms Pulford said she did not recall what she was trying to signal by the words.

Under questioning from Mr Greggery, Ms Pulford said that, from information she had seen, the external legal advice was not converted beyond a draft advice form.

She said that, if an external advice was not formalised beyond a draft, then it was "treated as not representing the departmental preferred view and arguable still open to discussion or comment or potential revision".

The reference prompted Commissioner Holmes to ask if, when the department received unfavourable advice, was it "just left that way and then never represents anything that you deal with, is that the approach?"

Ms Pulford replied that the scenario occurred "regularly" and it happened many times "that I had seen it".

Commissioner Holmes responded by saying: "I'm appalled".

Asked by Mr Greggery who would have made the decision about leaving the legal advice as a draft, Ms Pulford said the decision-making within the policy area was a matter for the internal organisation.

"I couldn't necessarily comment on saying whether that would have been if such a decision were made, it would be necessarily made at director level or at a different level,'' she said.

The commission has previously been given evidence that Ms Pulford was co-counsel on legal advice formulated by her team in 2014, which indicated the then-proposed scheme was illegal. [my yellow highlighting]

Inquiry shown emails relating to draft brief prepared for Scott Morrison

Earlier on Wednesday, the inquiry was told lawyers in Ms Pulford's section appeared to come under pressure later — when the scheme was being formulated — from then-social services minister, Scott Morrison, in relation to providing advice so it could be submitted to the Finance Department.

The inquiry was told lawyers in Ms Pulford's team provided more advice in 2015 because the Department of Human Services was advised that "Mr Morrison indicated he wants a number of potential proposals in an attached briefing [to] be brought forward for portfolio budget statements".

Ms Pulford agreed with counsel assisting Justin Greggery KC: "That it appeared pressure was coming from a clearance by minister Morrison to have a new policy proposal developed to the point where it might be submitted to the Department of Finance".

She agreed the advice was being sought in relation to proposals, such as the capability to detect, investigate and prosecute suspected fraud and noncompliance in the context of social welfare payments.

They also included the "utilisation of new technology to increase data analytics, complex network analysis and geospatial analysis and establishing a capability for real-time monitoring and risk-profiling".

The inquiry was shown internal emails between lawyers within the Social Services Department in 2015 relating to a draft brief being prepared for Mr Morrison.

Those emails referred to Mr Morrison requesting the Human Services Department "bring forward proposals to strengthen the integrity of the welfare system".

The emails went on to say the social security performance and analysis branch had provided comments highlighting the need for legislative change as well as the shift away from underlying principles of social security law.

Under questioning from Mr Greggery, Ms Pulford acknowledged the emails were seeking advice about what legislative changes were needed to get the proposal up and running.

Other emails revealed the need to provide preliminary advice to the Finance Department within just two days — a timeline that Ms Pulford agreed was "short".

The Guardian, 3 November 2022:

Plans for what became the robodebt scheme “almost immediately” concerned policy advisers at the Department of Social Services and were viewed by one official as “unethical”, a royal commission has been told.

Cameron Brown, a former director of payment integrity and debt management at the Department of Social Services (DSS), said he was responsible for seeking advice on the policy idea from its internal legal team in late 2014. [my yellow highlighting]

That was in response to a proposal from the Department of Human Services to use “income averaging” to raise welfare debts – the central plank of what became the ill-fated robodebt scheme.

At the time the DSS led the development of social policy while the Department of Human Services was responsible for administering services such as Centrelink, including welfare debt recovery.

It remains unclear whether this damning legal advice was shared with the Department of Human Services, which was responsible for the plan.

Brown said he and his team were “almost immediately” concerned about the “unethical” debt recovery proposal.

Brown compared the proposal to the so-called Dallas Buyers Club “speculative invoicing” saga in which copyright holders sent legal demands to alleged downloaders of the 2013 film for large amounts of money in the hope they would settle. [my yellow highlighting]

He noted many of the people targeted by robodebt were vulnerable and the “onus of proof” was unreasonable given much of the pay information they would need to source went back years…..

Read the full article here.

Prime Minister Albanese & Environment Minister Plibersek need to urgently re-evaluate the former Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government policy as it pertains to native forestry agreements along the 100km wide & 1,973km long NSW mainland coastal zone

 

The EPA has fined the Forestry Corporation over a Coffs Coast logging operation. IMAGE: ABC News, 13 November 2013

The Forestry Corporation of NSW is a state-owned corporation which has been 'managing' state forests for the last 106 years. Amongst other names, it has conducted business as Forestry Commission of New South Wales, State Forests (NSW) and Forests NSW.

Currently this corporation appears to control approximately two million hectares of forested land (including est. 270,000 hectares set aside for commercial soft & hardwood plantations) and produces approximately 14 per cent of Australia's annual wood product. 

Marching hand in hand with the growth of Forestry Corporation of NSW has been a loss of native animals due to logging. 

Australia-wide such native forestry logging was calculated by the World Wildlife Fund as averaging 1.5 million native animal deaths a year between 1998-99 to 2005-06 and 2 million a year between 2006-07 to 2014-15. According to NSW EPA State of the Environment Report; As at 2020–21, 1,043 species and 115 ecological communities are listed as threatened under NSW legislation including 78 species declared extinct.

Much of the current business and operational practices put in place by Forestry Corporation of NSW rely on the three NSW Regional Forestry Agreements (RFAs) signed by the State of New South Wales and the Commonwealth of Australia between 1999 and 2001 and amended/extended by successive federal Coalition governments with little thought to either the Commonwealth's existing legislated obligations or changing levels of risk to individual species or local/state-wide habitat range.

Many residents in Northern NSW consider the North East RFA which covers logging in the coastal area between Sydney and the Queensland border as particularly egregious. In part because it exempts logging in native forests from federal biodiversity law.

In my opinion the state-owned forestry corporation is a bad actor across the board. If one looks closely at how the NSW Government deals with its infractions, it is clear that the government of the day, a number of government agencies and Forestry Corporation of NSW have developed a bureaucratic and legal dance. A dance which allows the Corporation to ignore both its legislatively imposed restrictions and its social obligations to communities within the state's extensive coastal zone, in order to continue pursuing its commercial objectives by cavalierly logging native forests for maximum wood extraction and what looks suspiciously like frequently contrived minimum penalties.

Nature Conservation Council (NSW), media release, 20 June 2022:

Forestry Corp pinged for logging environmentally significant forests after the Black Summer bushfires

Just days after being fined $135,000 for destroying koala habitat on the mid-north coast, Forestry Corporation now faces charges it illegally logged a Category 1 Environmentally Significant Area in the Yambulla State Forest after the Black Summer Bushfires. [1]

“While the charges are yet to be proven, the fact the EPA launched this prosecution rings alarm bells,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.

“On Friday, Forestry Corp was fined for wiping out significant koala habitat. [2] On Monday they are being prosecute for logging forests that were ruled out of bounds after the fires.

“What more evidence does the government need before it orders a comprehensive independent review of Forestry Corporation to ensure it acts lawfully and sustainably?”

In this latest action, the EPA alleges Forestry Corp breached conditions imposed to aid the recovery of the Yambulla State Forest near Eden after the 2019-20 bushfires.

The EPA says that between March and July 2020, Forestry Corp contractors logged 53 trees in a Category 1 Environmentally Significant Area in the Yambulla State Forest.

EPA Acting Executive Director Regulatory Operations Greg Sheehy said the EPA imposed these Site-Specific Operating Conditions to protect areas in forests of environmental importance that were less affected by the fires.

Mr Sheehy said in a statement released by the EPA:

“Bushland along our South Coast was severely damaged by the devastating fires, and the EPA established additional protections for bushfire affected forests like the Yambulla State Forest in order to limit further harm

“These conditions were imposed to prevent FCNSW harvesting trees in areas considered environmentally significant that were less damaged or completely untouched by the fires.

“The additional protections, applied to certain forests in NSW were designed to help wildlife and biodiversity recover in key regions.

“These laws protect areas in our forests that may be home to important shelters and food resources for local wildlife or unique native plants.”

Last Friday, Forestry Corp was fined $135,600 fine for destroying koala habitat and ordered to pay $150,000 of the EPA’s legal cost.

As Forestry Corp is a company owned wholly by the NSW Government, the fines will ultimately be paid by NSW taxpayers.

REFERENCES

[1] FCNSW in court for alleged breaches of 2019/20 bushfire harvest rules, EPA, 20 June 2022

[2] Fines will never replace critical koala habitat destroyed by Forestry Corporation, 16-6-22, NCC

In 2018 Forestry Corporation NSW committed a series of offences between April and November of that year.

Prosecution of these offences did not begin until 2020 and culminated in a two day hearing in June 2022.

NSW Environmental Protection Agency (NSW EPA), media release, 16 June 2022:

Forestry Corporation NSW fined for forestry activities near Coffs Harbour

Fines and costs totalling $285,600 have been levelled against Forestry Corporation NSW (FCNSW) after the Land and Environment Court found tree felling in exclusion zones had done “actual harm” to koala habitat in Wild Cattle Creek Forest near Coffs Harbour.

The Land and Environment Court handed down a fine of $135,600 and ordered FCNSW to pay the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA)’s legal and investigation costs of $150,000 after FCNSW pleaded guilty to four charges brought by the EPA.

EPA Executive Director Regulatory Operations Carmen Dwyer said the prosecution sent a clear message to the forestry industry and operators.

“All forestry operators have a responsibility to protect the environment and comply with the law when carrying out tree harvesting activities,” Ms Dwyer said.

“Breaches of the forestry laws will be investigated and those responsible will be held to account.”

The felling was carried out by FCNSW contractors in 2018.

Two charges were for the felling of trees in protected rainforest areas, a third charge was for the felling of two trees in an exclusion zone around warm temperate rainforest, and the fourth was for felling four trees and other forestry activities in a Koala Exclusion Zone.

The non-compliant activities carried out in the Koala Exclusion Zone attracted the largest fine of $60,000.

Justice Robson accepted there had been harm to Koala habitat as a result of the non-compliant activities.

“The felling of the large Eucalyptus trees and the construction or operation of snig tracks were highly likely to have had an adverse impact by reducing the size and the quality of the habitat available to the breeding female and offspring,” Justice Robson said.

“As such, I accept the position adopted by the prosecutor and find that there has been actual harm.”

The EPA commenced the prosecution in 2020 after a long investigation into FCNSW’s activities in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest in 2018.

“Strict operating rules are in place to protect precious wildlife, such as the Koala. Exclusion Zones, which are a critical part of preserving the habitat of koalas to ensure their survival in this forest.

“Disregarding the rules and harvesting trees in these areas can put animals under increased stress,” Ms Dwyer said.

The offence relating to Koala Exclusion Zones carries a maximum penalty of $440,000, while the other three offences carry a maximum penalty of $110,000 each.

SEE Environment Protection Authority v Forestry Corporation of New South Wales [2022] NSWLEC 70 (9 June 2022)

Some other instances (updated)

EPA fines FCNSW $15,000 for allegedly failing to comply with post-fire conditions South Brooman State Forest, media release, 23 June 2022– launch of prosecution

Forestry Corporation fo NSW fined by EPA for destroying native animal habitat, media release,11 April 2022 – total fines $45,000

Forestry Corporation of NSW fined by EPA for failing to mark out a prohibited logging zone, media release, 18 February 2021 – fine $15,000

Forestry Corporation fined for failing to mark out a prohibited logging zone, media release, 26 February 2021 – fine $30,000 plus a warning

Environment Protection Authority v John Michelin & Son Pty Ltd [2019] NSWLEC 88 (19 June 2019) – sub-licensee of Forestry NSW, penalty $43,550 plus costs

Environment Protection Authority v Forestry Commission of New South Wales [2013] NSWLEC 101 (10 July 2013) – $35,000 penalty plus costs

Director-General, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water v Forestry Commission of New South Wales [2011] NSWLEC 102 (8 June 2011) – $5,600 penalty plus costs.

Tweet of the Week

 

Poor little moderate me ... #auspol pic.twitter.com/RnXhXXneZC

— Sammy J (@sammyjcomedian) June 2, 2022

 

From Sept 2013 to March 2022 the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Coalition Government's Political Appointments to Federal Government Agencies were as High as 1 in 3

 

“Make no mistake, a returned Morrison Government will take victory as an endorsement of every corrupt and corrupting thing they have done, and they will double down.” [Writer, academic, author Tim Dunlop, “Death of a Salesman?” , 19 May 2022]

The Australia Institute, media release, 16 May 2022:

A new report from the Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program represents the largest and most comprehensive domestic study of the practice of cronyism in relation to appointments to a government agency ever conducted in Australia.

This detailed deep dive report has investigated every single appointment made to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) since 1996 – almost 1,000 appointments in total, and reveals that the proportion of political appointments to the AAT has skyrocketed from ~5-6% under the Howard, Rudd and Gillard Governments, to almost one in three appointments (32%) across the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Governments, and two in every five appointments (40%) under the current government alone.

Key Findings:

• The research analyses every single appointment (974 appointments in total) to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and its precursors between 1996 and 2022.

• The share of political appointments to the AAT has skyrocketed from 6% under the Howard Government and 5% under the Rudd/Gillard Government to 32% under the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison term of government.

• Under John Howard political appointments were 6 in 100, current Government 2 in 5.

• Under the current Government, the share of political appointments has surged from 23% in 2013–2016 to 40% in 2019–2022.

• AAT Senior Members who are political appointments are much more likely to have no legal qualifications than Senior Members who are non-political appointments (26% vs 1%).

• Political appointees were more likely to be appointed on a full-time basis (47% of political appointees) than non-political appointees (22%).

• Most political appointees had served the party or parties that appointed them.

• 10% of political appointees had education levels below the level of a bachelor’s degree, compared with 2% of non-political appointees.

• Since 2016, the current Coalition Government has appointed seven Senior Members without legal qualifications, and all were political appointments.

• Of the 61 Senior Members appointed by the Coalition Government since 2013, 22 were political appointees.

• The report makes 10 recommendations for improving the AAT selection process.

“Across almost 1,000 appointments to the AAT since 1996, a worrying pattern emerges: appointments have become increasingly political under the current government,” said Ben Oquist, executive director of the Australia Institute.

“When John Howard was Prime Minister, only 6% of appointments to the AAT were political, but in the most recent term of the current Government 40% of appointments were political.

“These political appointments are much more likely to have no legal qualifications than non-political appointments, even though AAT decisions must consider facts, laws, and policy.

“The AAT is responsible for reviewing life-changing decisions by the federal government including deportations, migration visas, NDIS payments, welfare payments, workers’ compensation, and veterans’ entitlements.

“Members of the public should be able to trust that their case will be heard by a tribunal member who is qualified and not appointed for political reasons.

“A complete overhaul is needed to ensure that the AAT selection process is open and transparent, and not subject to political manipulation. This is now not only important for the AAT but is essential to fix integrity, accountability in government and protect democracy itself.”

Lead author of the report, Deb Wilkinson is an expert in the study of cronyism and is completing her doctorate at the Australian National University.

RELATED RESEARCH

Cronyism in appointments to the AAT

FULL REPORT

Besides political appointments, there are other ways of perverting the function of government agencies and influencing decisions/outcomes.

This was Morrison & Co's response to the Australian National Audit Office fulfilling its legislated brief.

ABC News, 19 February 2021:

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) runs the rule over the operations of government department and agencies, checking whether taxpayer funds are being used appropriately.

The profile of the agency has risen considerably in the last year after it uncovered the so-called "sports rorts" saga in early 2020 — revealing the Coalition disproportionately awarded community grants to sports clubs in marginal Liberal and National seats ahead of the 2019 election.

The ANAO also uncovered flaws with the purchase of a plot of land at the site of the new Western Sydney airport, called the "Leppington Triangle".

The Commonwealth paid close to $30 million for a 12-hectare parcel worth just $3 million, with Auditor-General Grant Hehir ultimately referring the land deal to the Australian Federal Police for investigation.….

The October 2020 budget showed a cut of $14 million to the ANAO's yearly funding, something the Auditor-General described as "uncomfortable".

Appearing before a parliamentary committee on Friday, Mr Hehir said his team would have to cut the number of major performance audits it undertook each year to deal with those constraints.

"Historically, for the last two decades, the ANAO has provided the Parliament with an average of 47 performance audit reports per year," he said in his opening statement…...

Australian Federal Election 2022: after eight and a half years the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has still not delivered a reliable NBN high speed broadband network

(Cartoon by Mark David / @MDavidCartoons)
INDEPENDENT AUSTRALIA, 16 February 2022

It’s been eight and a half years since the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government came to power and took a wrecking ball to key policy initiatives of the Rudd & Gillard Governments – solely on the basis that these were programs initiated by the Labor Party.

Even in Opposition, one of the Coalition's targets had been the National Broadband Network (NBN).

However, unlike the price on carbon, it could not erase the NBN but was forced to tolerate its existence.

By 23 September 2020 the Morrison Government and NBN Co had declared the initial rollout of a national high speed broadband network complete and fully operational. Apparently the only thing remaining was to plan for future increases in demand.

NBN Co then closed the door and, to all intents and purposes, walked away from most of the issues both it and the Coalition Government had created by using a patchwork of different connection types to supposedly meet the needs of over 25 million people in homes and businesses scattered across est. 7.692 million square kilometres of widely varying terrain.

In 2021 in response to Internet connection problems in his own electorate a member of the Morrison Government, 

Liberal MP for Berowra Julian Leeser, tabled a private members bill - supported by seventeen MPs and senators - which attempted to make NBN Co more accountable, build better infrastructure and improve customer service.

Julian Leeser, Telecommunications, retrieved 9 May 2022:

In response to the Bill, Choice’s Alan Kirkland said: ‘It’s unacceptable for people who live in a major city like Sydney not to have mobile coverage in their home, and even worse in a bushfire-prone area. We find it puzzling that the telco industry, particularly Telstra, has been able to get away with substandard service for so long.’

Professor Alan Fels, former chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, agreed that more needs to be done. He said: ‘For many years the telco industry has failed to make access to mobile phone services universally available, even in a number of suburbs. Yet such access is an essential service and vital in emergencies. After waiting for so long, it is clear that the only solution is legislation, backed by sanctions compelling it.’

That particular private member’s bill appears to have withered on the vine.

Also in 2021 a five-member panel conducted a review of regional telecommunications in Australia. One could be forgiven for wondering about the independence of this panel given a former Nationals MP for Cowper and, a business person who worked on the 2013 Nationals election campaign and previously derived consultancy work from a WA Liberal Government are among its members.

It came as no surprise that there were 16 key findings contained in the December 2021 review report, along with twelve recommendations. Although Finding 10 (highlighted below) raised an eyebrow.

Key Findings

1. Increased coordination and investment between the Australian, state and territory governments is needed to address a ‘patchwork quilt’ approach to connectivity in the regions.

Relates to Recommendations: 1, 2

2. Local councils and other regional stakeholders are increasingly expected to facilitate telecommunications service delivery, but are not appropriately resourced to identify connectivity need and support the deployment of suitable solutions.

Relates to Recommendations: 1, 5

3. Supply side issues, including backbone fibre and spectrum access, are barriers to competition and innovation in regional telecommunications markets.

Relates to Recommendations: 1, 2

4. There is an urgent need to consider the future of the Universal Service Obligation in order to provide reliable voice services to rural and remote consumers.

Relates to Recommendations: 7, 8

5. There are significant issues with the maintenance and repair of telecommunications networks, particularly copper landlines, in regional, rural and remote areas.

Relates to Recommendations: 7, 8

6. In instances of natural disasters and emergencies, connectivity is significantly impacted by power and network outages. This reduces access to recovery and support.

Relates to Recommendations: 3

7. Mobile coverage continues to improve, but expanding reliable coverage to priority areas is becoming more difficult.

Relates to Recommendations: 9, 10

8. Increased ongoing demand for data on regional, rural and remote mobile and fixed wireless networks is not always being met, causing network congestion issues.

Relates to Recommendations: 6, 9

9. Although Sky Muster Plus has improved access to data, Sky Muster users are frustrated by insufficient data allowances, high latency and reliability issues.

Relates to Recommendations: 6

10. Current minimum broadband speeds are mostly adequate, but will need to increase over time.

Relates to Recommendations: 8

There is a certain irony in Finding 10 given that less than one month before the report was delivered to the Minister, review panel member Prof. Hugh Bradlow was tweeting the NBN on 1 November 2021 with this complaint: "Hello @NBN_Australia my Internet at Sandy Point, Vic has been out for 3 full days. Instead of all the excuses on your website (and don't blame the power - it is working just fine) can you actually give a committed time to get it fixed?

11. There are emerging technology options to meet the demand for data but their service performance has not yet been validated.

Relates to Recommendations: 4

12. Regional consumers, businesses and local governments experience difficulty in resolving telecommunications issues and providers are not adequately addressing the complex needs of regional users.

Relates to Recommendations: 5, 7

13. Regional consumers, businesses and local government need access to independent advice and improved connectivity literacy to support them in making informed connectivity choices.

Relates to Recommendations: 1, 5

14. Predictive coverage maps and other public information do not accurately reflect on-the-ground telecommunications experience. There is significant misinformation about the availability of 

telecommunications services.

Relates to Recommendations: 5, 9

15. The cost of telecommunications services remains high for vulnerable groups in remote Australia. This is impacting on their access to essential services.

Relates to Recommendations: 11, 12

16. Continued engagement with Indigenous Australians in regional, rural and remote communities is needed to address ongoing issues of access, affordability and digital ability.

Relates to Recommendations: 5, 11, 12

Over a year after the Morrison Government declared the high broadband network a success it was very evident that it was far from having that status.

Indeed, in some quarters opinion had been scathing.

InnovationAus.com: Public Policy and Business Innovation, 4 November 2021:

This week, Telstra claimed its 5G home broadband service will offer average speeds of 378 megabits per second to homes and businesses. In contrast, the average maximum speed on Fibre to the Node is 67 megabits per second, and up to 200,000 premises on the copper NBN can’t even get 25 megabits.

Imagine spending $50 billion on a copper dominated network, that’s not delivering minimum speeds required under law, and already losing its competitiveness.

That is the anti-genius of Liberal-National Party. Deceive. Implement bad technology policy at higher cost. Then spend more money to correct their mistakes. They led us down this path on broadband, and now want to do it with energy.

In 2013 the Liberals produced “modelling” known as the NBN strategic review. This elaborate sham had a sole purpose: provide political cover for abandoning fibre.

This document was then used to claim a multi-technology mix of second-rate technologies was going to be $30 billion cheaper than a full-fibre NBN.

This untruth, repeated at nauseum, relied on two tricks.

The first was pretending the copper dominated network being rolled out costs $41 billion. False. It is costing $57 billion.

The second was to claim the original plan to deploy a fibre network to 93 per cent of Australia would cost $72 billion, rather than the near $50 billion forecast under Labor.

The latter claim, which the Liberals clung to desperately, was decimated in a front-page report in the Sydney Morning Herald in February 2021.

It revealed that in late 2013 the Liberals were explicitly told deploying Fibre to the Premises was dramatically cheaper than what they claimed in public.

That advice was redacted and kept secret for seven years, and it is clear why.

If the redacted costs for fibre, along with real-world interest rates, were fed back into the strategic review “modelling”, the original fibre rollout would have cost around $53 billion.

Notably, Minister Fletcher stopped repeating his $30 billion claim since the unredacted extracts appeared in print, because he always knew it to be false.

The NBN copper rollout has now become a business case liability and looks increasingly uncompetitive against 5G.

The NBN HFC network, which relies on Foxtel Pay TV infrastructure, is arguably the most expensive and unreliable deployment of its sort in the world.

Tens of thousands of Fibre to the Curb modems across the country are also frying during storms because lightning is being conducted over the copper that leads into the home.

The government is now saying Fibre to the Curb technology will not deliver gigabit speeds, despite promising it would only a year ago.

Every fixed-line technology deployed by the Coalition is beset by technical or business case problems, except for Fibre to the Premises – Labor’s original technology of choice.

As the 2022 federal election date drew nearer the Morrison Government on 23 March bestirred itself enough to announce that:

The Morrison Government has welcomed NBN Co’s announcement that 50,000 homes and businesses will be able to order an upgrade to their NBN connection, delivering ultra-fast speeds at no upfront cost.

These are the initial customers to have access to upgrades that will allow 8 million homes, or 75 per cent of premises in the NBN fixed line footprint, to access to ultra-fast speeds by 2023.

Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher, said the on-demand upgrades will give more Australians access to the fastest broadband speeds available on the NBN.

There is no mention of ongoing costs and pricing which remain an issue.

I am honestly not sure that this is anything more than a typical election year 'announceable' which will sink down into the pile of past unmet expectations raised concerning NBN high speed broadband.

Regardless of whatever media releases the Morrison Government is sending out, the dissatisfaction with the NBN high speed broadband network remains 12 days out from election day…..

The Guardian, 8 May 2022:

The NBN rollout may have been completed, but Richard Proudfoot is still using an old ADSL internet connection, and he has to juggle his Zoom meetings around his partner’s work.

He runs a small IT business from his home in Maleny, on the Sunshine Coast, about 100km north of Brisbane, while his partner is a part-time university lecturer.

Due to their property’s terrain, NBN Co has told him he is not able to connect to fixed wireless or fixed line. While he has the option of satellite, many users have reported poor speeds and reliability. He has stuck with ADSL for the time being because he believes the tree cover and weather would adversely effect his service.

“We are very, very dependent on a reliable internet ADSL connection. To make it work for us given the limitations, we schedule internet use based on need ... we cannot do concurrent Zoom meetings so we rearrange diaries in order to cope.”

The Coalition and NBN Co declared the rollout of the then $51bn network complete in 2020. There are now 12.1m homes able to connect, and 8.5m homes on the NBN.

The high-speed network was meant to resolve the digital divide in Australia, but two years on from its completion there remains a stark difference between the haves and have-nots; those who have a decent internet service and those still waiting or suffering from poor speeds and reliability on their NBN service.

The Liberal MP Julian Leeser wrote a scathing review of the NBN in a submission to the federal government’s regional telecommunications review last year, describing it as “too slow with countless delays”.

Leeser’s northern Sydney electorate, Berowra, is a mix of suburban and semi-regional locations, meaning his constituents are living with the spectrum of NBN technologies, from fixed to wireless and satellite.

“There is too much variability in the quality of coverage across the various NBN technologies,” he said.

The pandemic forced many people to work from home and rely on their home internet more than ever before.

Leeser said that teachers had been forced to work out of McDonald’s car parks to leech the wifi for online classes, people were unable to work from home or undertake telehealth appointments, and some had even been forced to move out of the area due to their poor NBN connection…...

Many Guardian Australia readers raised problems with the project when asked what their major concerns were ahead of this month’s federal election.

One reader, Cate, who lives in Killarney Heights in the Sydney electorate of Warringah, missed out on full fibre or cable that some nearby suburbs have access to.

She says she was originally connected via the Optus internet cable but was moved over to fibre-to-the-node (FttN) on the NBN.

“Using Optus cable we rarely had dropouts. I could count on one hand the number of times over five years that we lost internet for any noticeable length of time,” she says.

Now she says they experience daily interruptions.

“Our modem takes five to 10 minutes to reconnect so this can often mean at least 25 to 50 minutes a day of disruption to our service and this is still considered acceptable by NBN and they will do nothing to fix it.”

She says she is rarely able to get the top speeds promised. In speed test results Cate provided to Guardian Australia taken between 2pm and 3pm on a weekday, the results ranged from 1.3Mbps to 40Mbps, compared to 100Mbps on her previous Optus cable…..

Around 119,000 premises that are connected to the NBN via FttN still can’t get the minimum 25Mbps download and 5Mbps upload speeds. Due to the ageing copper and environmental conditions, FttN connections will continue to get worse over time.

In February, the NBN CEO, Stephen Rue, admitted the bit rate – the number of bits that can be transferred across the network per second – would degrade between 2% and 4% every year on average across the 4m FttN connections.

The other looming factor is people switching the NBN off. Customers frustrated with the NBN might look to 5G or another service like Elon Musk’s Starlink, and threaten the ability of the network to make a return on the taxpayer investment.…...

Something to think about standing in line at the polling booths on Saturday 21 May 2022.