Media Release
Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity
150 media releases and Opposition still searching for policy
Opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin has reached a career milestone with the issue of his 150th portfolio media release, without establishing a single policy.
"Nick Minchin has proved a diligent publisher in Opposition but has failed to grasp the vital skill of policy development," said the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy.
"This milestone is the sole portfolio achievement of an Opposition bereft of communications policy, confused on the need for 21st century infrastructure and fascinated with past failures."
"While living in a policy vacuum, Nick Minchin has been happy to opportunistically criticise efforts to establish an enabling infrastructure for Australia’s future digital economy."
"Scare mongering on vital national issues such as broadband infrastructure, digital television, cyber-safety and our national broadcasters does nothing for public debate or good."
"Equally, taking tips from newspaper business pages and industry newsletters does not constitute policy or an alternate point of view for the Australian people."
"This is an opportunist Opposition struggling for relevance and Nick Minchin is publisher in chief."
Great Minchin publishing moments have included:
- Declared his enthusiasm for "digital switch-off" rather than the digital television switchover being pursued by the Rudd Government (22 September, 2008).
- Trumpets claims about National Broadband Network viability, despite his chief advisor, Henry Ergas of Concept Economics, entering administration (22 April, 2009 and 2 September, 2009).
- Claims no private infrastructure owner would have interest in the National Broadband Network (25 June, 2009).
- Raises hysteria about overhead fibre network deployment (31 May, 2009) before declaring on ABC Radio the National Broadband Network won’t have the impact of previous cable deployments.
- "Guarantee in perpetuity" $100 million annually from Communications Fund for telecommunications upgrades, despite Coalition voting to abolish the fund (10 December, 2008, mysteriously vanished from Senator Minchin’s web site).
- Claims the ABC and SBS Board open to political interference (11 November 2008), despite the implementation of the first ever independent, transparent and accountable selection process and Howard Government stacking boards with political appointees.
Date: 15 September 2009
Contact: Tim Marshall 0408 258 457
