Malcolm Turnbull had one job to do as Communications Minister and that was to build the National Broadband Network—and he made a mess of it.
When the Liberals came to Government in 2013, Mr Turnbull recklessly ignored advice about the consequences of switching to his second-rate copper network.
He went ahead anyway, committing to replace Labor’s fibre-to-the-premises rollout with a mixture of technologies including hybrid-fibre-coaxial (HFC)—the technology used to deliver pay TV services—and fibre-to-the-node—a technology that relies on Telstra’s old and decaying copper telecommunications network.
Under the Liberals, the cost of rolling out the NBN has almost doubled, from $29.5 billion to $56 billion. The time it will take to build has also more than doubled.
It’s a broken promise. The Liberals pledged to have every Australian home and business connected to the NBN by the end of this year.
Instead, it took more than two years in government for Malcolm Turnbull to deliver even one connection using his fibre-to-the-node copper-based solution, and after a full term in Government he has yet to deliver a single HFC connection, despite promising to roll it out to 2.6 million homes by 2016.
As a result of the ‘multi-technology mix’, Australians will be getting a second-rate broadband network that cannot meet the ever increasing needs of 21st Century schools, hospitals, homes and businesses.
Australia – and its economy – will pay the price for Mr Turnbull’s recklessness.
From 30th in the world for internet speeds when the Liberals came to power, we are now 60th.
If anyone in business had so comprehensively failed the way Mr Turnbull did with the NBN, they would have been sacked.
But instead of getting the boot, the Liberals promoted Mr Turnbull to Prime Minister.
After making a complete mess of Australia’s largest infrastructure project, the Liberals put him in charge of running the country.
Instead of punishing his incompetence, they rewarded it.
The original Labor NBN would have delivered optic fibre to 93 per cent of homes and businesses, providing speeds of up to 1,000 megabits per second on a network easily scalable to much higher speeds in the future.
It would have provided our nation’s businesses, entrepreneurs, students and scientists with the tools they need to compete in the global economy of the 21st century.
Only a Shorten Labor Government can be trusted to fix Malcolm Turnbull’s mess.
Bill Shorten and Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare recently announced that a Shorten Labor Government would roll out the fibre-to-the-premises NBN to up to two million additional Australian homes and businesses.
The rollout of the second-rate copper network will be phased out—construction of fibre-to-the-node will cease when the current pipeline of construction work is completed.
Total funding for the NBN will be capped at $57 billion, and the public contribution to the project will be no more than $29.5 billion (the same as under the Liberals).
This is achievable because, although the capital costs of fibre-to-the-premises are greater, our model will make significant savings in operating costs.
With more fibre-to-the-premises connections, we will not have the same costs of fixing and maintaining the ageing Telstra copper network or the electricity bills associated with running thousands of nodes across the country.
Furthermore, Labor’s investment in more fibre means the network can attract more revenue, as users will pay more for higher speeds.
We expect that, under our model, full construction of the NBN will be completed by the middle of 2022 – the same time as Mr Turnbull’s second-rate version.
A Shorten Labor Government will commission Infrastructure Australia, with input from relevant experts, to manage the development of a plan that outlines how and when the parts of Australia left with Mr Turnbull’s second-rate NBN should be transitioned to fibre-to-the-premises.
The Turnbull Government’s network can only guarantee peak speeds of 25 megabits per second.
This may be enough for the average household today, but it will only take a few years for the ever-increasing broadband demands of Australians to overtake these speeds.
It exposes the worst hypocrisy of our Prime Minister, who wants to be seen as encouraging an innovation boom, while at the same time failing to provide one of the key tools for driving innovation.
How can you have an innovation boom while you’re still buffering?
A fibre-to-the-premises network can deliver peak speeds of up to 1,000 megabits per second and potentially much more in the future.
We know that the rest of the world is moving toward fibre-to-the-premises broadband networks, and Australia risks being left behind.
If we continue down the path set for us by Malcolm Turnbull, we risk losing jobs and economic opportunities to our competitors overseas.
Fast broadband is essential national infrastructure in the 21st Century.
Only Labor can be trusted to deliver a broadband network that provides for the jobs of the future.
In the meantime, if you’re still buffering, blame Malcolm Turnbull.
*Senator Catryna Bilyk is Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate and Senator for Tasmania
