MEDIA RELEASE - PAUL FLETCHER USES BREAKFAST TWITTER TO MISLEAD - 12 AUGUST 2020
12 August 2020
MICHELLE ROWLAND MP SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS MEMBER FOR GREENWAY
PAUL FLETCHER USES BREAKFAST TWITTER TO MISLEAD
It appears Labor’s scrutiny of the NBN Corporate Plan “targets” have touched a nerve with Minister Fletcher. In a Twitter rage this morning, the Minister did a rehash of the 2020 NBN Corporate Plan targets which he then backed in with another tweet:
“Had we not abandoned Labor’s disastrous NBN plan – which would’ve taken 6-8 years longer to complete — around 4.5 million Australian homes & businesses in the fixed line footprint would be unable to connect to the NBN.”
Setting aside the fact Mike Quigley has already methodically addressed misleading Liberal claims about the cost and time to deploy the original fibre NBN, it seems the Minister can’t even keep track of which disingenuous figure he’s spinning today.
In October 2019 the Minister said the multi-technology mix “would be delivered five years faster than the original plan and would save taxpayers $30 billion”.
And then on 12 May and 7 June 2020 he claimed “we committed to a turnaround – with the NBN to be rolled out four years more quickly and for $30 billion less than under Labor’s plan”.
The Minister should at least try to be consistent in his misleading claims, rather than embarrassing flip-flopping between four different figures in the space of ten months.
It’s one thing to be an untrustworthy Minister.
It’s another to be so incompetent you can’t even remember which falsehood you want to use.
