Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor said Labor had no credibility on the NBN (National Broadband Network) and its costs and timeframes didn’t stack up.  

“In the last month alone, the Government connected more premises to high-speed broadband with the NBN than Labor did in six years*. They have no credibility on this issue. They hopelessly mismanaged the project. They wasted billions,” said Mr Taylor.

He said Labor’s plans for the NBN would mean longer waiting times and more cost.

“The last time the NBN looked at how much it would cost to do Labor’s FTTP rollout, NBN

found it would cost around $30 billion more and would take six to eight years longer. Now Labor are saying that there will be little additional cost and that Labor’s rollout will be finished at roughly the same time - it’s a magic pudding.”

Mr Taylor said the Coalition has prioritised the NBN rollout to rural and regional areas, with parts of Hume, around Cowra and Young, switched on to the NBN well over six months ago and the rollout continuing elsewhere in Hume.

“The fixed line NBN (Fibre-To-The-Node) in areas including Narellan, Appin, the Oaks, Picton, Thirlmere, Buxton, Bargo, Tahmoor, Hill Top, Mittagong, through to Moss Vale, Berrima, Bundanoon and Goulburn is under build. These areas will start to go live in the coming months - at this stage, from early July onwards.

“Fixed wireless continues to be rolled out across the electorate, designed for communities with lower density, and larger block size, such as in the southern highlands.

“This network is already being planned and deployed, and the first connections will happen later this year and continue into next year, location dependent. The satellite is already live, and NBN is accepting orders from those premises that are outside the fixed line and fixed wireless rollout.”

Labor’s NBN announcement confirms that:

Australians will wait longer – Mr Shorten said Labor’s NBN would be completed by

June 2022, which means homes and businesses will have to wait more than two

years longer for the NBN.

Australians will pay more – With a new price tag of $57 billion, Labor’s gold-plated

policy is $8 billion more than the Coalition’s current peak funding projection of $49 billion.

Mr Taylor said under Labor’s more expensive NBN, the costs would be passed on to consumers who simply weren’t willing to pay.

*(More than 61,000 new active services per month, compared to 51,000 in total at the time of the 2013 election).