Coalition awards $520k for NBN upgrade to single business in Barnaby Joyce’s electorate

The Morrison government has awarded over half a million dollars in funding for the installation of fibre-to-the-premises NBN to a single business in the electorate of the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, despite the government having previously argued against taxpayer funded fibre upgrades.

Fruit and vegetable grower Costa Group, which on Tuesday reported a 2021 yearly net profit after tax of $64m, is listed in documents provided to Senate estimates as the sole beneficiary of a planned upgrade from satellite NBN services to a full fibre to premises service. The upgrade is for the company's tomato glasshouse facility in Guyra, in the New England electorate, as part of the federal government's regional connectivity program.

NBN Co will switch the business over at a cost of $520,018, with the company needing to install fibre along the New England Highway to connect Costa's facility.

This is despite the NBN Co estimating that the average cost per premises for fibre-to-the-premises is $4,395. The company is also spending about $1,500 per premises to upgrade select homes across the country from fibre-to-the-node to fibre-to-the-premises.

When Joyce announced a range of funding under the program in April last year, while sitting on the backbench and not responsible for decisions such as this, he said of the Costa project that "more residents and businesses in New England will enjoy the benefits and opportunities that improved digital connectivity brings."

However, according to documents provided to Senate estimates by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, the upgrade covers just the Costa facility, with no other premises included.

Other fibre upgrade projects funded in the $117m first round of the program listed cover hundreds of premises each that are subsequently able to connect to the NBN via a full-fibre connection.

Round one of the regional connectivity program funded thousands of premises in regional parts of Australia to convert from connecting to the NBN via satellite to a full fibre connection at a cost of close to $40m for taxpayers, according to calculations made by Guardian Australia.

A spokesperson for Joyce confirmed the then backbencher wrote a letter of support for Costa's application.

"This was done in his capacity as federal member for New England and in recognition of the benefits the project could deliver to the region, of which there were plenty," the spokesperson said.

"Any suggestion Mr Joyce acted inappropriately is off-base and only serves to perpetuate the anti-regions campaign the Labor party is running."

In Joyce's register of interests, he discloses his partner, Vikki Campion, has shares in Costa Group, although the register does not indicate how many shares she holds.

Asked whether he disclosed the shares in the letter supporting the project, the spokesperson for Joyce said: "Any suggestion Mr Joyce acted inappropriately is off base and only serves to perpetuate the anti-regions campaign the Labor Party is running."

The Guardian does not suggest any impropriety by Mr Joyce or Ms Campion.

The funding decision was made by the former regional communications minister Mark Coulton, in consultation with the communications minister, Paul Fletcher. Coulton's successor, Bridget McKenzie, passed on questions about the grant to the department.

A spokesperson for the department said the objective of the program is to "use a place-based approach to target telecommunications infrastructure investment that will provide economic opportunities and improve participation in the digital economy for regional communities and businesses" and all proposals are competitively assessed by the department before funding recommendations are made to the decision maker.

"The Connecting Costa Group - Growing the Guyra project, jointly funded by the Australian government and NBN Co under Round 1 of the RCP, will upgrade the NBN access technology at the Costa Group hydroponic tomato glasshouse facility from Sky Muster Satellite to fibre to the premises," the spokesperson said. "As one of the largest businesses in the region, and the major employer in the area, the proposed solution will provide significant economic benefits to the local economy through increased employment opportunities and an increase in regional output."

The spokesperson said despite the project only connecting Costa "other business along the fibre footpath could take advantage of this investment", suggesting businesses could later seek to get their own fibre upgrade.

The use of taxpayer funds to upgrade fibre came in stark contrast to the government's public comments about using taxpayer funds for NBN upgrades. In November, when Labor promised to add another 1.4m premises to the government's existing plans to upgrade more homes to fibre across the country, Fletcher accused the opposition of wasting taxpayers money with the upgrade.

"It's clear that what Labor proposes here is more wasteful government spending of taxpayers' money. That's what Labor does - because that's what Labor is good at," he said.

Joyce's spokesperson said any funding for improved connectivity in the bush is a good thing.

"Regional businesses deserve the same standard of digital connectivity that companies in capital cities take for granted and this funding has helped deliver that."

Comment has been sought from Costa Group.