Minister for Communications, Mitch Fifield, has been asked by a Senate Committee to confirm if NBN rollout document briefings have been shared with non-Coalition MPs who wish to find out when the NBN reaches their electorate.
NBN released its three year rollout plan last Friday. Up to 7.5 million homes and businesses have been added to NBN's construction plan for the national broadband network rollout.
The new plan covers the period to September 2018 and includes areas where NBN will use Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) TV networks to connect premises.
Around 2.8 million premises in New South Wales will be connected, 2.5 million in Victoria and 1.9 million in Queensland. A further 970,000 will be connected in Western Australia, 750,000 in South Australia, 72,000 in the Northern Territory and 134,000 in the ACT.
Appearing before a Senate and Environment Communications Legislation Committee today, Fifield was asked if there is an electoral distribution of the three year plan.
Fifield replied that members of parliament are “always open” to approach NBN about rollout plans for their electorate and that two to three page briefings have been provided to Coalition MPs.
He was asked by Senator for NSW, Sam Dastayri, if briefings had been made available to opposition MPs who requested it.
“I will examine it, as with all requests,” said Fifield.
Fifield was asked to confirm with the Committee today if anything in the briefings was in commercial or confidence.