COMMENTARY: Did Conroy really admit failure?

Former communications minister Stephen Conroy has acknowledged that NBN Co missed targets and said that his government overestimated the construction industry’s ability to build the network.

But while Conroy’s comments may seem at first glance to be admissions of failure, his statements appeared to be framed in such a way to paint the Labor party and the NBN in a particularly positive light, and to offload blame for failings onto other entities.

Senator Conroy gave the comments while delivering an address on the topic of ‘Nation Building in the Digital Age’ at an Australian Computer Society luncheon last Friday.

During the speech Conroy said that “it is undeniable that NBN Co failed to meet the targets set for June 2013 in either the first or second Corporate Plan”.

But while some have cast the comment to be an admission of failure, this is truly up for debate.

The statement was preceded immediately by his comment that the “latest public information on the project” - the June 2013 NBN Co Corporate Plan - showed NBN Co “still forecasting the project would be completed by June 2021 and for a CapEx of $37.4 billion - on time and on budget”.

He also went on to say that of the five components of the NBN (fibre, satellite and wireless networks, plus a transit network and essential IT systems), only the fibre rollout “is significantly lagging”.

He then proceeded to blame this squarely on “the failure of the construction industry to mobilise resources”.

When later pressed by media for his thoughts on what Labor got wrong on the NBN, Conroy went further and said: “I think we [overestimated] the capacity for the construction industry to respond to the challenge. And that has led to the majority of the publicity around the alleged blowouts - not that anyone can point to one.

“It’s fair to say the construction model could be legitimately criticised,” he said.

Again, while these comments may appear to be admissions of failure, they have the function of assigning blame to an external party - in this case, the construction industry.

That’s not to say that the construction industry doesn’t deserve any blame for any delays in the NBN’s rollout. And I’m not saying that the NBN was poorly managed, poorly devised, unnecessary or anything of the sort.

In fact, I’m not making any assertions about the NBN or NBN Co at all.

What I am saying is this: when a politician (or anyone with an agenda, really) speaks, you should look at their individual statements in the context of what else they’re saying, and in the greater context of what they’re trying to convince you of.

Ask what picture they’re trying to paint with these statements and, in particular, the picture they’re trying to paint of themselves, their plans and projects and their allies.

Do this regardless of what your political affiliation is (or, in this case, whether you are pro- or anti-FTTP NBN).

Then tell me if Conroy was really admitting failure.