NBN Co has won the support of federal government’s information commissioner in keeping the full details of its $11 billion Telstra deal all to itself.

That’s bad news for Internode and its attempts to gain access to the complete text of the deal between Telstra and NBN Co. Internode lodged its original application in June, just as the deal was sealed and weeks after the Freedom of Information laws became applicable to NBN Co.

The request was summarily dismissed by NBN Co, which said at the time that the documents were related to its commercial activities and therefore not subject to full disclosure.  

Internode fired back with an appeal in August, stating that the political nature of the NBN made the $11 billion deal more than just a commercial agreement and the full details should therefore be made public.

However, FOI commissioner James Popple said that while there is an undeniable political element to the deal, the documents are commercial and NBN Co was well within its rights to refuse Internode’s request.

“Those documents may be, as Internode asserts, ‘an exercise of political mandate'. But they are also documents in respect of NBN Co's commercial activities. For s 7(2) to apply, it is not necessary that the dominant purpose of a document be the carrying on of those activities,” Mr Popple said in his ruling.

Internode, which has the right to launch a supplementary appeal on the ruling, has no further plans to pursue the matter.