MEDIA RELEASE - $51 BILLION LATER, AND FIBRE WAS BETTER ALL ALONG - 22 SEPTEMBER 2020

22 September 2020

MICHELLE ROWLAND MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS
MEMBER FOR GREENWAY


$51 BILLION LATER, AND FIBRE WAS BETTER ALL ALONG
 

Minister Paul Fletcher has today announced NBNCo will overbuild its existing network, duplicating both cost and time, to connect Australian businesses with fibre after the Liberals left them behind with copper.
 
After spending $51 billion on a second-rate network, and wasting seven years, it turns out fibre is what Australian businesses needed all along.
 
Labor welcomes this step and surely people are wondering — what on earth was the point of spending $51 billion of taxpayers’ dollars on the Liberals’ second-rate copper network to begin with?
 
It should not be lost on anybody that the Liberal Party doesn’t have a clue when it comes to technology or economics.
 
Their decision to attack and dump fibre was never about cost, but always about the politics.
 
This has meant Australian taxpayers have paid more for a network that does less, and more money is now required to play catch up.
 
TUESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2020