Leaked Government Files Reveal The NBN’s Negotiation Strategy With Telstra

Today the ABC released a series of stories called The Cabinet Files, based on an astonishing collection of files found in an abandoned filing cabinet in a second-hand shop in Canberra.

Inside were years of documents featuring top secret information on the internal workings of five different Australian governments – including NBN Co’s secret negotiation papers.

The files discuss multiple different topics, all of which can be found in the ABC’s fantastic reporting, which you can find here.

For example, files discussing the NBN Co’s secret negotiation strategies were revealed. They discuss, among other things, how the government planned to work with Telstra on the NBN.

According the ABC’s reporting, the then Labor government were “desperate” for Telstra’s support on the NBN.

“Telstra will initially approach the government with a number of proposals which the government will need to politely but firmly resist… The strategy is … [for Telstra to] ultimately approach government to invest or use NBN Co’s network on the government’s terms.”

You can read the documents in their entirety here and here.