Very early in my time as Mayor, we were undertaking a major construction project in Dubbo. It was a good project with a large amount of money coming from the Federal Government. Unfortunately, during the project, it was obvious that we were going to run over time and consequently over budget. We knew this well before the end of the project.
We had two choices. We could stay quiet about it and hope it wasn’t noticed by anyone. Surely most people wouldn’t notice? Once we did the official opening and everyone saw the great result, who would care?
While this approach might be taken by some organisations, we took the opposite approach. We announced the project was over time and over budget! I can see media people across the world reading this right now and cringing. Why would we make an announcement of bad news? What were we thinking?
I have a view on how a government body should use a media team. I believe that a media team is there to inform the public – not ‘spin’ information. I personally cringe with the term ‘spin doctor’ because the last thing I would want a media team to do is ‘spin’ everything that happens in a government organisation so that the real information is never obtained by the public.
When an organisation realises that a media team is in place to inform not spin, it puts pressure on the entire organisation to make the news good news. It is incredibly unfair of any organisation to go about their activities in a reckless manner with the expectation that a media team will make everything look shiny and new. It makes every decision made by every person in every department pass the front page test. Are you happy with this action or decision to appear on the front page of a national newspaper? If you are, then go about your business and well done. If you aren’t, then you have probably answered the question as to whether this is a good decision.
Now that doesn’t mean an organisation should shy away from ‘tough’ decisions. There are some decisions that a government organisation makes that are very much line-ball decisions. If the decision is made with the correct information and for the right reasons, then the decision makers should be proud to stand tall and explain their decision – even if the decision may be unpopular with some. The simplest example is each year when Councils put their rates up. It would be very easy to make a seemingly popular decision and declare that there will be no rate rise but when a city started to cut back on services or lay off staff from lack of funding, suddenly a popular decision might be a very unpopular one! Decision makers need to be able to stand up and support the reasons for their decision and be confident they have made the correct decision.
In the last week we have seen a perfect example of what not to do – in my opinion. There is a significant amount of debate in Dubbo at the moment about the merits of NBN Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) versus Fibre to the Node (FTTN). Even though philosophically I am a strong supporter of Dubbo continuing along the far superior FTTP rollout that has already begun, the technology chosen by NBN Co. (based on government policy) is not being announced by NBN Co. or the government. The last official communication we have in relation to the NBN connection method in Dubbo was from 16 July 2014 when a media release was put out to say that starting in the eastern suburbs of Dubbo, around 2,700 premises would be connected with FTTP as the first stage of the NBN rollout in Dubbo.
In discussions with both the government and NBN Co. I have been confidentially aware for over seven months that East Dubbo will be one of three NBN areas in Dubbo that will be connected with the inferior FTTN despite the most recent communications contradicting this. There will still be four areas connected with FTTP. Again, put aside the argument on the merits of FTTP versus FTTN. No official communication has come from the government or NBN Co. to inform the residents of the city of this dramatic change. In a meeting with the Communications Minister last week I was given permission to inform people of the decision but this decision should have been formally communicated by the department responsible – not by the mayor of a city. I am not sitting in the media team for either the government or NBN Co. so I can only imagine that they don’t want to make the announcement for fear that this is bad news. Well it is bad news – but the government went to the last election with a change of NBN on the agenda and, now that the change has occurred, the public deserves to be informed.
In an example of perfect irony, it was reported by The Australian at the end of 2013 that a secret review of the NBN prepared for the Gillard government three years prior estimated the NBN would leave taxpayers $31 billion worse off. In response, the coalition said they were committed to telling the truth about this project beginning with a strategic review. If the Gillard government failed to fully inform the taxpayer of the costs in 2010, then NBN Co. are failing to willingly communicate the technology they will be receiving as part of the rollout in 2015.
An ASX listed company is bound by rules of continuous disclosure. I would hope for even higher standards from any government department.