29 February 2016
The nbn is on track to meet its targets for the financial year, within the budget set out in the company’s corporate plan. Any suggestion to the contrary is just wrong.
The company has met its targets for the past six quarters in a row. This is in stark contrast to management under Labor, when the company had barely managed to connect 50,000 users after four years.
The Coalition Government has taken a business-like approach to managing the nbn project. After two terms of Government, Labor had upgraded broadband to just 1 in 50 premises in Australia.
By the end of this year, the nbn will have upgraded 1 in 4 premises and by the end of 2018 it will have extended to 3 in 4 premises.
Our changes to the rollout will see the project finished six to eight years sooner than reverting to Labor’s approach, and at around $30 billion less cost.
Labor’s record on the nbn
· Under Labor the NBN Co failed to meet every rollout target it set itself. For Labor to tell communities they would have had NBN sooner under them is simply wrong.
· The NBN under Labor was one of the most poorly managed projects in the history of the Commonwealth.
· The 2016 nbn Corporate Plan estimates that continuing with an all-fibre build to completion would require funding of between $74 billion and $84 billion, and could not be completed until at least 2026. That’s $30 billion more and six to eight years later than the current roll out.
· The Labor Opposition have indicated they will return to their extravagant FTTP disaster. Further adding to the black hole of their unfunded policy announcements.
· Under Labor, around $6.5 billion was spent to deliver broadband to less than 3 per cent of premises.