Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
General Comment
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Suddenly the NBN seems newsworthy again – because of the huge loss on money being always there but only now admitted.
Otherwise a quiet week as we roll down towards Christmas!
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/ehealth-nsw-beats-state-cloud-migration-target-588593
eHealth NSW beats state cloud migration target
By Kate Weber on Dec 6, 2022 6:45AM
Touts perseverance in getting clinical software makers to modernise.
eHealth NSW has migrated "a bit over 30 percent" of its workloads into the public cloud, eclipsing a government mandate to have at least 25 percent of ICT services in the cloud by 2023.
In doing so, it has also pioneered the migration of some clinical software platforms to run in the cloud, defeating sometimes heavy pushback from the vendors.
Speaking at AWS re:Invent 2022 last week, eHealth NSW service delivery executive director Farhoud Salimi touted the agency's progress with its public cloud migration on the world stage. It has agreements to use both AWS and Microsoft Azure under a multi-cloud strategy.
"All agencies had to have 25 percent of their workload in clouds by the end of 2023. We've already beaten that, so that's okay - the only agency by the way that's done that," Salimi said.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/ehealth-nsw-digital-academy-opens-to-all-state-health-workers-588613
eHealth NSW digital academy opens to all state health workers
By Kate Weber on Dec 7, 2022 6:55AM
Over 160,000 offered chance to develop new skills.
eHealth NSW has opened a digital academy of courses to all of NSW Health's 160,000-plus staff across the state.
The digital academy kicked off in late 2019, initially just for eHealth NSW staff. It had two training streams, cloud and agile, and was aimed at existing infrastructure and application support staff to retrain around digital and cloud-based tools and techniques.
eHealth NSW service delivery executive director Farhoud Salimi told AWS re:Invent 2022 last week that the academy now has seven streams, covering also data analytics, human-centred design and patient safety disciplines.
Two more streams are also set to be added: the academy intends to add an integration and interoperability security stream and a cyber security stream, which is currently being made “more interactive”.
As eHealth NSW works on a mass cloud transformation, which will see its applications migrated onto the public cloud by 2025, staff can be trained in the necessary skills through the academy.
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Monday, 05 December 2022 10:15
Data on thousands of Aussies for sale on bot markets
At least 10,000 Australians have had their online identities stolen and sold on bot markets for an average of $9 per person, finds new research from NordVPN.
The hackers are selling digital fingerprints, cookies, up-to-date logins, screenshots, and webcam snaps. New Zealand has been similarly affected, with over 6,000 Kiwis having their data stolen and sold.
The NordVPN research looked into three major bot markets. For clarity, “bot” here refers to data-harvesting malware and a bot market is an online marketplace hackers use to sell data they stole from victims' devices with bot malware. The data is sold in packets containing the full digital identity of a compromised person.
“What makes bot markets different from other dark web markets is that they are able to get large amounts of data about one person in one place. And after the bot is sold, they guarantee the buyer that the victim’s information will be updated as long as their device is infected by the bot,” says NordVPN CTO Marijus Briedis. “A simple password is no longer worth money to criminals when they can buy logins, cookies, and digital fingerprints in one click for just nine Australian dollars.”
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/mygov-mobile-app-lands-at-last-588717
myGov mobile app lands at last
By Staff Writer on Dec 5, 2022 11:40AM
A year after first hoped.
The long-delayed myGov app has at last been launched.
The previous government first flagged the idea of a native iOS and Android app as the interface to myGov in 2019.
In July 2021, iTnews reported that the app was under development by Accenture, IBM, and Arq Group working with Deloitte.
In October last year, Services Australia said it hoped to launch the app in December 2021.
In August this year, Services Australia set a revised launch date before the end of 2022, which has now been delivered.
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https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2022/12/mygov-app-australia/
myGov Finally Gets a Standalone App, Something That Should’ve Happened Years Ago
Published 7 hours ago: December 5, 2022 at 2:44 pm
The federal government a few years ago launched myGov, an online portal that was meant to be an easy, and secure, way to access services online with one login and one password. Those who have used it know that it has been anything but.
Through myGov, users can link Australian JobSearch, Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Centrelink, Child Support, Department of Health Applications Portal, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, HousingVic Online Services, Medicare, My Aged Care, National Disability Insurance Scheme, National Redress Scheme, State Revenue Office Victoria and My Health Record services.
It never had an app, and logging in to access these government services wasn’t exactly straightforward. This was proven when many Aussies were trying to retrieve their vaccination certificates late last year.
Many of us, too, only knew of myGov because of the absolute heart-attack it brought on when an email was sent saying something to the effect of “You’ve got a new message in your myGov inbox”, particularly during those awful robodebt times. But today, we’ve been told we’re getting a myGov app.
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https://www.innovationaus.com/delayed-mygov-app-launches-sans-medicare-card/
Delayed myGov app launches sans Medicare card
Justin Hendry
Editor
5 December 2022
The federal government’s long-promised myGov app has finally launched, complete with a new digital wallet offering users the ability to prove their identity with a service provider using a QR code.
But the smartphone app, which was first flagged in 2019 and has taken the last 18 months to develop, is missing key features currently available on older apps operated by Services Australia.
Government Service minister Bill Shorten revealed the new myGov app on Monday, describing it as “another important step forward in the transformation of Australian government digital services”.
The app follows the launch of the revamped Adobe-based myGov platform in early September, a largely cosmetic upgrade offering a new layout to help people see their inbox messages and more clearly.
Additional functionality is expected to be added over time, with Minister Shorten flagging the potential to use myGov to nudge people to consider health screening earlier this year, for instance.
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Doctors to fly in to help patients end their lives without breaking federal law
By Lydia Lynch
7:33PM December 4, 2022
Doctors will fly to regional Queensland to help terminally ill patients end their lives next month after the federal government failed to act on pleas from state Labor colleagues to change laws restricting assisted dying via telehealth.
Queensland taxpayers will fund the flights to circumvent a federal law that prohibits “inciting or counselling” suicide over the phone or internet when the state’s scheme begins on January 1.
The Australian revealed in July that federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus was investigating changes to the Criminal Code after senior members of the Palaszczuk government raised concerns about doctors being fined $222,000 for discussing euthanasia via telehealth.
But despite 18 million Australians due to be covered by state assisted-dying schemes by the end of January, the federal government has not yet made legislative amendments to exempt doctors.
Government sources have told The Australian senior members of the Albanese government have also been lobbying Mr Dreyfus behind closed doors.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/fly-in-doctors-to-visit-vad-patients-as-telehealth-ban-drags-on/
Fly-in doctors to visit VAD patients as telehealth ban drags on
The Queensland Government says flying doctors to patients is a stopgap measure until laws banning telehealth VAD consults are changed
6 December 2022
Authorised voluntary assisted dying doctors will fly to regional and rural towns across Queensland to assist patients wanting to access the scheme, the state government has announced.
The scheme has been introduced amid ongoing frustration over the Federal Government’s failure to amend laws to allow doctors to counsel dying patients via telehealth.
Training has already been approved for 135 doctors and nurses in Queensland, and the state government is flying voluntary assisted dying (VAD) doctors to centres with patients wishing to access the scheme.
“This is needed until we get the changes to federal legislation that allow us to support people through telehealth as well,” Queensland Minister for Health Yvette D’Ath told The Australian.
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https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/703846/icognition-takes-treasury-cms-cloud/
iCognition takes Treasury’s CMS to the cloud
Transitioned the Department to the cloud within 60 days.
Sasha Karen (ARN) 06 December, 2022 16:02
Services provider iCognition has pushed the federal government’s Department of the Treasury’s content management system from an on-premises system up to the cloud.
Selected as Treasury’s “long-term partner”, iCognition transitioned the Department over to its Enterprise Content Management/Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) software-as-a-service, otherwise known as EDRMSaaS.cloud.
As part of the process, iCognition upgraded the Treasury’s EDRMS to its Content Manager version 10.1 solution, then transitioned this to the cloud via EDRMSaaS.cloud within a 60-day timeframe.
According to the services provider, the solution has been assessed at the PROTECTED level by the Information Security Registered Assessor Program (IRAP) and meets ISO 27001 certification.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/anz/st-john-god-subiaco-hospital-pilots-citadels-oncology-ims
St John of God Subiaco Hospital pilots Citadel's oncology IMS
The solution is expected to improve the delivery of chemotherapy treatment.
By Adam Ang
December 08, 2022 12:02 AM
St John of God Subiaco Hospital is the latest to try out Citadel Health's oncology information management system.
The CHARM Evolution system has gone live for a pilot at the hospital's Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
WHAT IT DOES
CHARM Evolution serves as a centralised oncology patient record combining treatment plans, appointment scheduling, and simplified reporting for all outpatient consultations and same-day and overnight inpatient services.
WHY IT MATTERS
St John of God Subiaco has chosen the oncology solution expecting it to help improve its delivery of chemotherapy treatment and enable its care teams to consistently provide safe patient care.
Citadel added that the system also "offers clinicians remote access to relevant clinical information and streamlines clerical tasks, reducing the risk of error and enabling more time for patient care."
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Roundup: Over 18 GB health files stolen from Pinnacle and more briefs
Also, Canberra Health Services is adopting Mayo Clinic's Well-being Index app to promote its workforce's well-being.
By Adam Ang
December 08, 2022 11:55 PM
Hackers stole 18 GB health files from Pinnacle
In an update, the Pinnacle Midlands Health Network disclosed new information about the data that was stolen from its third-party IT server during a breach in late September.
Pinnacle has figured that hackers have accessed health information dating from 2016-2022 and some of its corporate information from its third-party IT server.
Its latest investigation found that approximately 93 gigabytes (GB) of data were taken with over 18 GB containing health information. About 23 GB of data did not contain health information while the remaining data are still being classified.
Pinnacle said it recognises many of the files involved – what information is likely to be in those files. However, it has yet to know the names of individuals who have been exposed to the hack.
Meanwhile, the stolen corporation information relates to the organisation's guidance, manuals and templates that are routinely downloaded by staff.
"We are working on identifying any information that may be especially sensitive or which may be different from what we understand has been taken to date. If this process uncovers data that would cause a person to suffer serious harm, we have a process to take the appropriate steps with respect to that information," Pinnacle said.
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Australian Digital Health Agencey 2022-22 Annual Report
Annual performance statements 2021–22
Statement of preparation by accountable authority
On behalf of the Board, I present the 2021–22 annual performance statements of the Australian Digital Health Agency, as required under paragraph 39(1)(a) of the PGPA Act. In my opinion, these annual performance statements are based on properly maintained records, accurately reflect the performance of the Agency and comply with subsection 39(2) of the PGPA Act.
Dr Elizabeth Deveny
Chair
27 September 2022
Performance targets from the Portfolio Budget Statements 2021–22
This section reports on the Australian Digital Health Agency’s 2021–22 results against the performance measures and supporting annual targets published in the Minister for Health and Aged Care Portfolio Budget Statements 2021–22 (PBS) and in the Agency's Corporate Plan 2021–22. The measures have been developed to assess the Agency’s delivery of the 7 strategic priority outcomes (strategic pillars) to be achieved by the Agency by June 2022, as outlined in Australia’s National Digital Health Strategy (2018–2022).
The Agency has been successful in progressing the objectives of the National Digital Health Strategy in 2021–22 and achieving the Agency’s purpose:
Better health for all Australians enabled by seamless, safe, secure digital health services and technologies that provide a range of innovative, easy-to-use tools for both patients and providers.
A performance analysis is provided below for each 2021–22 target, noting that in all but 3 instances, targets were met or exceeded.
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https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/careers/executive-officer
Executive Officer
EL1
($125,047 - $142,618)
Digital
Strategy Division > Administration
Brisbane,
Canberra, Sydney
Closing - 18 Dec 2022
Division Overview
Digital strategy – responsible for national digital health design and strategy, underpinned by strong clinical governance and digital health standards.
Primary Purpose of Position
The EL1 Executive Officer position will provide executive office management, support and coordination, reporting directly to the Division Head.
The EL1 Executive Officer is accountable under broad direction to
undertake and coordinate very complex operational, administration and Division
business management activities in support of the Division Head. They will
develop and apply a comprehensive knowledge of the Agency's administration,
project, financial, reporting and business management requirements to achieve
expected outcomes. Gaining this knowledge will require skills in relationship
development, strong communication and transparency in how you go about your
work. It also requires a strong interest in the work of the Agency across all
areas of our work, such that the work of your Division can be undertaken in
collaboration with other Executive Officers in the Agency and the context of
the broader work program.
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My Health Record: In Specialist Practice - Buderim Private Hospital
Thu Dec 8, 2022
My Health Record: In Specialist Practice - Buderim Private Hospital
A breakfast session to highlight the benefits of use of the My
Health Record system for specialist practitioners.
About this Event
Specialists, Practice Managers, and the Practice Team are invited to join Dr Jon Harper, GP Liaison Officer, Central Queensland, Wide Bay, Sunshine Coast PHN, supported by Dr Pam Fotheringham, GP Liaison Officer, Buderim Private Hospital for a breakfast session to highlight the benefits of use of the My Health Record system for specialist practitioners.
Objectives for this education will include information addressing.
• What is My Health Record?
• The benefits of accessing My Health Record information to specialist practice
• What is new in My Health Record
• Patient privacy and consent to access My Health Record.
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Competition watchdog report notes NBN’s service hasn’t kept pace with its pricing
By Joseph Lam
7:10PM December 9, 2022
NBN has increased the price of its home broadband services over the past year by as much as $9 per month while its own service standard measurements “remained largely unchanged”, the consumer watchdog has found.
NBN lifted the price of entry-level plans with low speeds by $2.50 per month, or 3.6 per cent, while mid-range plans rose $4 – or 4.7 per cent – and premium services rose $9, or 9 per cent. Prices ranged from $72.50 to $109.
While the monthly fees have risen, NBN’s upload speed metrics have “not improved significantly” since the beginning of the pandemic.
NBN had also not improved its upload speeds despite it being crucial to working from home, online learning and gaming, the report said.
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NBN bet could have paid off if the Coalition hadn’t messed it up
We’ll never know if the national broadband network could have broken even, because of a catastrophic decision to detonate the original 2009 business and technology model.
Kevin Rudd Former Australian prime minister
Dec 8, 2022 – 4.14pm
The Albanese government’s decision to liberate the national broadband network from its obligation to fully recover its construction cost has been hailed by all the usual ideological and corporate suspects as a sign the NBN could never have generated a commercial rate of return.
But all this crowing – notably from The Australian Financial Review, whose editor’s ideology dictates knee-jerk hostility to most forms of government intervention – is based on a deeply flawed factual premise.
The truth is we’ll never know if the NBN could have broken even, because of the Coalition’s catastrophic decision in 2013 to detonate the business and technology model that my government announced in 2009.
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Thursday, 08 December 2022 21:04
NBN Co to deploy robots to automate field work tasks
NBN Co has collaborated with University of Technology Sydney Robotics Institute to explore the potential use of remote-controlled robots to perform maintenance and construction tasks on the fixed line network.
In a recent proof of concept demo, a small four-wheeled robot was used to traverse a five-metre long PVC pipe laid with fibre optic cable.
Along with navigating the 250mm diameter pipe, cameras and sensors attached to the robot were used to create a 3D model of the inside of the pipe in real-time on a computer monitor.
The demonstration explored the viability of using robotics to perform tasks such as clearing blocked conduit, hauling cable, and collecting 3D network data.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-performance-reporting-to-be-tightened-588870
NBN Co performance reporting to be tightened
By Staff Writer on Dec 8, 2022 11:58AM
ACCC considering record keeping rule.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission wants input into a record-keeping rule (RKR) covering NBN Co's network performance and service quality.
The competition regulator said the RKR is being developed both for NBN Co, and with an eye to a similar rule for competitors covered by its 2016 superfast broadband access service declaration.
An RKR would provide “greater public transparency of NBN service quality, along with improved operational reporting between NBN Co and retailers, will improve outcomes for end-users over time and reduce overall costs relating to the management of faults and outages”, the ACCC said in its consultation paper [pdf].
“The aspects of service quality and network performance that
we propose be covered by an
RKR relate to connections, faults and dropouts, appointments, network outages
and speed
performance, rebates due to not meeting service levels, and corrective action
taken by NBN Co," the ACCC said.
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https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/nbn-exposes-political-monopoly-money-20221205-p5c3o0
NBN exposes political ‘monopoly money’
‘Off budget’ spending has become popular among politicians, but there is no free lunch in the rising interest rate era.
John Kehoe Economics editor
Dec 7, 2022 – 1.07pm
The renewed focus on the National Broadband Network’s struggle to deliver a commercial return to taxpayers and calls for the government’s $29.5 billion equity valuation to be written down expose the opaque nature of government accounting.
In itself, the NBN Co’s lack of return for taxpayers is not necessarily a major problem.
The multibillion-dollar subsidy will result in broadband being delivered to millions of Australians, although almost certainly at a higher cost than what the private sector could have built the NBN for.
Yet, the overhyping of NBN Co’s “commercial” nature by former prime minister Kevin Rudd and former communications minister Stephen Conroy exposes a slippery slope in how politicians justify spending on big “nation building” projects.
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The spectre of future write-downs make the NBN a tough sell
Aaron Weinman Investment banking correspondent
Dec 7, 2022 – 5.16pm
Limited visibility of future cash flows and the possibility of further write-downs would make selling the National Broadband Network very difficult, investment bankers and analysts said.
The possibility that the technology underpinning the NBN could be usurped by competing infrastructure also poses significant challenges for the company, and casts doubt on its ability to turn a profit, analysts and investment bankers told The Australian Financial Review.
“You lay the latest and greatest [infrastructure], but it costs a ton of cash to buy the kit, install it, and by the time it is operating, there is new technology,” one managing director at a global bank, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said. ”So it begs the question, is this the last writedown by the government?”
While the Labor government has signalled that privatising the NBN is off the table, some believe the asset should have been in private hands from its inception.
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Telstra courts trouble with upload speed cut for Belong 100Mbps NBN users
By Ry Crozier on Dec 6, 2022 2:20PM
ACCC files Federal Court action.
Telstra is facing court action over the mass-downgrade of 100Mbps NBN customers of its Belong brand to a service with lower upload speeds, allegedly without notice or compensation.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleges just under 8900 Belong customers had their plans reduced from 100/40Mbps to 100/20Mbps, but only 2500 were compensated with a one-off $90 credit.
The ACCC wants a court order “requiring Telstra to pay compensation” to the remaining customers, whom it alleges still haven’t been notified of their shrunken upload speeds.
In a concise statement [pdf] filed with the Federal Court, the ACCC wrote that “speed, and its relationship with price, is a key consideration when choosing and remaining on an internet plan and is a key differentiating factor between plans and pricing.”
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The cost of NBN’s most popular speed could soon rise
Lucas Baird Reporter
Dec 6, 2022 – 12.50pm
NBN’s revamped wholesale pricing proposal will increase prices on slower mass-market internet plans, but drop the cost of faster and less-utilised speeds, with Telstra and Optus set to get hit on the hiked up slower plans.
It could lead to higher consumer prices on the most popular 50Mbps plans, which will result from the base wholesale cost increasing from $45 a month to $50 a month, all while it retains extra capacity-based fees as far as 2026.
More than half of the wholesale plans retailers bought from NBN and resold to users was 50Mbps in the June quarter, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission data shows, implying that it is what the most home internet customers are using.
This occurs as the cost of 100Mbps plans and higher will drop between $3 a month and $10 a month and no longer include capacity-based fees, which Credit Suisse analyst Entcho Raykovski says will benefit Telstra the least.
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Inside the bloody political war that led to a $31bn NBN blowout
The NBN has cost a lot more public money than Labor promised back in 2009 after years of political wrangling. Now its future hangs in the balance. Will it be a financial albatross or digital cash cow?
Paul SmithTechnology editor
Dec 6, 2022 – 4.25pm
To the citizens of most developed nations the idea that the construction of telecommunications infrastructure would be one of the most heated political debates for over a decade would sound absurd, yet Australia’s National Broadband Network is still causing consternation for the chattering classes 13 years in.
The latest controversy is one of economics, with the long held promise that the NBN was a commercial investment, which would repay its public funding over time, essentially discarded in favour of providing consumers affordable internet.
The government has announced that it will not recover at least $31 billion of regulatory costs, related to the building and maintenance of the network, while at the same time analysts have said it is unlikely to ever break even in a future private sale.
The Productivity Commission has put the current market value of NBN Co at $19.5 billion, which is well below its $29.5 billion equity value in the federal budget.
Of course $31 billion is a hefty chunk of public money to just forgive, but appears the only realistic option to many observers, for an initiative that was derailed by partisan politics.
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Tuesday, 06 December 2022 08:34
Broadband retailers meet and exceed their advertised speed claims, ACCC report shows
Broadband retailers are more regularly meeting or exceeding their advertised speed claims for NBN fixed-line plans during busy evening hours, claims the ACCC’s Measuring Broadband Australia (MBA) report.
Last August retailers on average met or exceeded their download speed claims in 92% of the all-important busy hours (7-11pm on weekdays) when demand on the network is highest. This is up from 88% in May, the report showed.
The average download speed performance across all retailers’ fixed-line plans during the peak evening hours was 98.2% of their maximum plan speeds. These results are slightly better than they were in May 2022.
The gap between the best and worst performing retailers also narrowed in August. The lowest performing retailer delivered on average 96.1% of the maximum plan speed during busy hours compared to the highest at 103.3%.
In May, the range of results was between 88.8 and 102.3%, which is almost twice as wide as the latest results.
“A combination of retailers sustaining strong performance and providing more accurate information in their advertising means that more consumers are getting what they pay for in their NBN plan,” ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey said.
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NBN Co deploys Nokia’s broadband technology for a ‘faster’ and ‘greener’ network
NBN Co will deploy Finnish telecommunications vendor Nokia’s next-generation broadband technology MF series Optical Line Terminals (MF-14) and the Altiplano Access Controller on the NBN network to offer flexibility, improved customer experience, and the option to support higher capacity broadband technologies such as XGS PON, 25GS PON, and 50G PON.
Claiming to be the first operator in the southern hemisphere to deploy the Nokia MF-14, NBN Co will transition to move from wholesale residential gigabit speeds offered today to multi-gigabit residential speeds across the NBN fibre to the premises (FTTP) network and help address Australia’s broadband needs in the future.
NBN Co says Nokia’s technology is more energy efficient and will help NBN Co to realise the company’s Towards-Zero Carbon Ambition to decrease the overall power consumption of the network.
Last November, the NBN network reached a peak rate of 22.35 terabits per second downstream traffic. NBN Co is expecting that this would increase up to 100 terabits per second in the next ten years.
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Tough decisions ahead for NBN as rival options open up
John Davidson Columnist
Dec 6, 2022 – 5.00am
The national broadband network will finally be able to provide high-speed broadband to nearly all Australians now that it doesn’t have to recoup all its upgrade costs, but it may have to choose between doing that and staying ahead of fast-emerging 5G and satellite services, a former NBN executive says.
The announcement last week that the NBN no longer needs to recoup $31.5 billion in rollout and maintenance costs frees it up to invest in super-fast fibre-to-the-home technology that will help it stay ahead of the speeds offered by wireless technology, said the former executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is no longer authorised to speak for the company.
But it will also be viewed by NBN Co as a restoration of the network’s original mandate to provide fast and reliable internet connectivity to all Australians, including to the 250,000 households on the edge of the network, which the NBN has allowed to languish because it would never be able to recoup the cost of upgrading their copper-wire connections to fibre.
“They’re going to have to decide what they want to do,” the former executive said.
“Do they want to upgrade the network in areas that are already getting reasonable speeds, to sell them higher speeds? Or do they do what they really should do, which is fix up those areas of the country with the long copper tails, where people are getting sub-25-megabit-per-second speeds?”
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No shame in NBN’s blowout, Labor was on the right side of history
The government should just own its mistake in promising unlikely commercial returns on the NBN, because it was ultimately right on the bigger picture.
Paul Smith Technology editor
Dec 5, 2022 – 4.49pm
Readers of The Australian Financial Review could be forgiven for thinking they have stepped into a time warp, as the topic of Labor’s 2009 decision to create NBN Co and spend billions of dollars building a national broadband network, has splashed back on to its front pages, after a $31 billion definitely-not-a-write-down was announced.
Write-down or not – bigger economic brains than mine can debate the terminology – it is surely about time the government becomes less opaque with the public about the financial reality of the project.
It has been 13 long years, so surely it is time to admit that not everything said and done was 100 per cent right. Regardless of write-offs, Labor got a lot less wrong on broadband policy than the Coalition.
The public has both paid for large chunks of the network, and largely supported the spending whenever push has come to shove, so let’s give it to them straight.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-looks-to-multi-gigabit-speeds-for-its-fibre-network-588701
NBN Co looks to multi-gigabit speeds for its fibre network
By Staff Writer on Dec 5, 2022 6:37AM
Will deploy new Nokia equipment from next year.
NBN Co will next year start preparing its residential fibre network to support speeds beyond 1Gbps by deploying optical network equipment by Nokia.
The company said late Friday that it would deploy “MF-14 optical line terminals and the Altiplano access controller” on the NBN, starting in 2023.
This, it said, would create options “to support higher capacity broadband technologies, such as XGS PON, 25GS PON, 50G PON and beyond.”
“NBN Co will be one of the first in the world – and the first operator in the southern hemisphere – to deploy the Nokia MF-14,” the operator said in a statement.
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Labor can’t just shrug off NBN write-down
The Financial Review’s take on the principles at stake in major domestic and global stories.
Dec 4, 2022 – 6.17pm
So much funny money has been thrown around that the Labor government appears to think it can just shrug off the extraordinary $31.5 billion regulatory write-down of the national broadband network, the nation-building government wholesale monopoly sketched out on a paper napkin in 2009 by then-communications minister Stephen Conroy on a prime ministerial flight with Kevin Rudd.
It’s good that Australia has a workable broadband network, as highlighted when the NBN helped with the mass shift to working from home during the pandemic. But the massive regulatory write-down vindicates the concerns expressed by The Australian Financial Review a decade ago that Mr Conroy dismissed as akin to believing the world was flat.
Contrary to Mr Conroy’s red-in-the-face insistence back then, the Productivity Commission now says the NBN is “unlikely to earn a commercial rate of return in the future” and that by 2040 its accumulated losses will total $25 billion.
Now, the Financial Review seems to be the only major news title to make much of NBN’s politically directed admission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that it will no longer seek to recover the full $44 billion sunk into the network’s initial build, but instead would only claw back $12.5 billion from retail internet providers.
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NBN loses $31b. Just don’t call it a write-down
The only surprising aspect of acknowledgement that NBN Co will never deliver a commercial return for taxpayers is how many years it took to admit the obvious.
Jennifer Hewett Columnist
Dec 4, 2022 – 6.26pm
The only surprising aspect of acknowledgement that NBN Co will never deliver a commercial return for taxpayers is how many years it took to admit the obvious.
Even now, the federal government will not officially write down tens of billions of dollars worth of publicly funded investment in the national broadband network in order to maintain the fiscal fantasy it is not required to add this cost to the budget bottom line.
Instead, NBN Co relies on yet another of the complicated telecommunication terms ensuring mass confusion. The accounting trick is to slash what is called the Initial Cost Recovery Account by $31.5 billion yet somehow not alter the equity value of the NBN.
“[ICRA] is a recognised regulatory concept that reflects NBN’s un-recovered costs to date,” a spokesman said last week. “Limiting drawdown of the ... ICRA is not a write-down, and NBN Co has no plans for a write-down or impairment.”
The English translation of that means NBN Co will only seek to recover $13.5 billion of the $44 billion of accumulated losses in building and maintaining the network rather than anything like the full amount.
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Enjoy!
David.
2 comments:
So, MyGov & MyGovID apps.
For the authentication steps in MyGovID setup I used my driver licence. I'd been issued with a temporary new number due to the Optus hack. I used that number but it caused error, so put in the original which was accepted.
On the old Android, I uninstalled then re-installed MyGovID. On opening the app, initial confirmation of email went through, but then I was required to *create* a password to proceed.
"The English translation of that means NBN Co will only seek to recover $13.5 billion of the $44 billion of accumulated losses in building and maintaining the network rather than anything like the full amount."
Echoes of MyHR:
"ADHA will not seek to recover any of the $3billion+ of accumulated losses in building and maintaining the MyHR rather than returning the many millions per year of savings to the health budget promised when the system was approved."
It's probably not corrupt behaviour, just incompetence. And it's ongoing.
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