Conroy offers to be witness in NBN contractor dispute

Speaking to a Senate hearing on the NBN in Sydney, Mr Conroy said he had offered to be a witness for the Tasmanian subcontractors in the court case as the communications minister serving when Visionstream was signed on. Photo: Louise Kennerley

David Ramli

Senior Labor Senator Stephen Conroy has volunteered to be a witness in a looming court stoush between contractors building the national broadband network - a rare move for a former government minister and serving Senator.

Six Tasmanian contractors travelled to Sydney on Friday to seek legal advice on whether they could sue NBN Co contractor Visionstream over allegations it broke contractual agreements to provide work building the national broadband network.

Work across the state came to a standstill in late 2013 after Visionstream stopped significant rollout work citing issues including asbestos mishandling, work has since gradually increased.

The subcontractors claim they missed out on millions of dollars of work after Visionstream reneged on contractual agreements despite investing in training and equipment for the rollout.

Speaking to a Senate hearing on the NBN in Sydney, Mr Conroy said he had offered to be a witness for the Tasmanian subcontractors in the court case as the communications minister serving when Visionstream was signed on.

Mr Conroy's spokesperson has confirmed his offer was genuine.

The Opposition is keen to slam the government over what it perceives as a slowdown in work across the country.

It sees the NBN slowdown in Tasmania as being a symptom of the Coalition's change in rollout technology from fibre-to-the-premise to fibre-to-the-node, which is cheaper and faster to roll out but provides slower internet speeds. READ NEXT:

Original Post By: http://ift.tt/1kMlHh9

Source : http://ift.tt/1kMlHh9