Mitch Fifield appears to be suffering post-spill memory loss – embracing the NBNCo backdown on service levels as a “win for consumers” despite the Government lodging a submission with the ACCC in March 2018 opposing that very step.

To quote the submission from the Minister’s department:

“the ACCC is encouraged to monitor the market and to clearly identify the sources of outstanding problems rather than imposing wholesale standards” 

And then in response to Labor announcing its NBN Service Guarantee in June the Minister offered the following pearl of wisdom:

          “Labor are completely in the dark, floating thought bubbles that disregard the independent regulator's inquiry”

Yet now the Minister finds himself embracing the apparently very dark thought bubbles he tried to shoot down.

As the Banking Royal Commission has shown, such forgetfulness by Liberal Ministers is part of a well-established playbook of opposing consumer welfare initiatives that Labor proposes, only to switch position after the battle is lost.

Labor will continue to formulate its consumer policy priorities from Opposition and we are glad to see NBNCo now taking steps to implement some of these measures.