Whither the BIF?
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Posted Tue 30 September 2008 @ 7:36 p.m. by Ernie Newman
Today was it - the closing date for applications for the government's Broadband Investment Fund.
I'm predicting that when the people at the Ministry of Economic Development count the applications in the morning, there'll be a truckload. My antennae tell me that an awful lot of smart people in local government, power lines companies, economic development agencies and the private sector have invested a huge amount of time in preparing applications since the deadline was announced late in August.
Which begs the $324 million question - what happens next?
The word I get is that it will take officials several weeks to get through the initial assessments. Understandable - these things are complex, there is serious money involved, and it's not always easy to compare apples with apples.
So that takes us, in all probability, beyond the election.
If the current government is returned it should be a doddle. Minister settles in, finds officials’ recommendations on his (her?) desk, and signs them off.
But what if there's a change of government? National hasn't exactly waxed lyrical about its view of the BIF. It’s said, grudgingly, that it will honour completed contracts. Its also acknowledged that its own, more grandiose fibre plan will remain just that - a loose plan - for quite some time after the election while details are worked through. Don’t expect to see your driveway dug up and fibre being laid when you wander out to collect the newspaper on Sunday 9 November!
But if my sources are right, the chances of a whole lot of contracts being completed before 8 November are all but zero.
I hope we are not going to see the broadband baby thrown out with the political bathwater. I hope all those people who have sweated to meet today's deadline, at the cost of shareholders, ratepayers and themselves, haven't worked in vain.
I hope the MED will take an early opportunity to release a detailed summary of the applications it has in hand. At the very least this would be a valuable capability statement, outlining the potential outcomes achievable under Labour's methodology. That's important information that all parties are entitled to have.
Delay and disruption around the time of an election are a price we pay for living, thankfully, in a democracy. But it’s incumbent on everyone to minimise this. An objective summary of the proposals the BIF applicants have put on the table is important information we need to move ahead. And if National is elected, and some of the applications stack up well enough, it should approve them so we can make progress. That would be an excellent outcome.
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