CANBERRA—The Federal Government has rejected claims the tender process for a national broadband network is deeply flawed and lacks transparency, amid calls for the auditor-general to investigate.
The opposition has called for an urgent investigation, saying the process is unfair and anti-competitive because potential bidders do not have ready access to key information.
Opposition communications spokesman Bruce Billson says the tender process is heavily tilted towards Telstra, one of only two confirmed bidders for the $4.7 billion project, because the telco has a virtual monopoly on crucial information about existing network infrastructure.
The other confirmed bidder is the G9 consortium led by SingTel and Optus.
"One likely bidder, Telstra, which holds the vast majority of this information, is clearly advantaged where the exchange of information is not facilitated, or is delayed," Mr Billson said.
He said federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, by his own admission, was fully aware some bidders had been disadvantaged by not being given equal information about the existing network infrastructure.
"This situation places other potential project bidders at a massive disadvantage, considering almost a month has already elapsed since the formal call for proposals," Mr Billson said.
He also criticised the Government for placing a gag order on bidders, saying it prevented discussion about the process regardless of the public interest and appeared to be in breach of commonwealth procurement guidelines.
Mr Billson, who has asked the commonwealth auditor-general to investigate, said the tender process was "deeply flawed, contradictory, anti-competitive, lacks transparency and was being driven by unrealistic deadlines".
Senator Conroy said the Government was committed to a genuinely competitive assessment process.
He said he welcomed scrutiny by the auditor-general, adding that the tender process had already been cleared by the probity officer.
But whether the process favours Telstra or not could be immaterial, with the telco signalling it could yet withdraw its bid to build the network.
The threat followed comments by Senator Conroy that he was willing to consider regulatory reform which may include further operational separation of the telco.
The minister told the Sydney Institute last night that the operational separation regime applied to Telstra by his Howard Government predecessor, Helen Coonan, was ineffective.
"We are prepared to carefully look at structural arrangements similar to those adopted in countries such as UK, NZ and Singapore," he said.
Telstra is strongly opposed to the overseas models and said similar reforms in Australia would likely put an end to its bid to build the network.
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