Labor’s plan to vastly improve the efficiency of the NBN 

History has a way of catching up with those who look backwards rather than forwards. History has overtaken the Morrison-Joyce Government and its National Broadband Network, a project they opposed and ridiculed when it was first put forward by the former Labor Government. 

The Coalition Government’s decision to stop the roll-out of 21st century fibre to homes and businesses and instead use copper wire was absurd. It shows that the Morrison-Joyce Government can’t be trusted to use technology to grow the economy and create jobs. 

Even the Coalition’s flawed NBN helped Australians to work from home during Covid. It allowed schools to operate online. It saved jobs and businesses, proving itself as an essential piece of 21st century economic infrastructure.

If elected next year, we will accelerate ongoing NBN upgrades and provide fibre access to 1.5 million Australian homes and businesses, chiefly in the outer suburbs of our cities and in regional areas. 

Our $2.4 billion plan will give Australians who now rely on copper wire connections the choice of having fibre connected directly into their homes if they want faster speeds. 

The Coalition dudded these families and businesses in 2013 when it took an axe to Labor’s original NBN plan, which was to connect 21st century optical fibre cable to more than 90 per cent of homes and businesses around the country. 

Instead, the Coalition ran fibre cables into boxes on street corners in the middle of neighbourhoods then connected them to homes using copper wire, a technology of the 19th century. The Coalition bought enough copper wire to encircle the globe one and a half times. 

Scott Morrison’s B grade NBN denied millions of Australian families and businesses the full benefit of broadband and the difference it can make to education, telehealth and connecting regional Australia to the global marketplace.

Last September Mr Morrison admitted he got it wrong. He committed an extra $6 billion to bring the network up to scratch, bringing the full cost of the project to $57 billion – nearly twice what the Coalition had promised.

This backflip was welcome, but late and expensive.

As I said in 2013 as Communications Minister: Do it once. Do it right. Do it with fibre. A Labor Government will fix the Coalition’s mistakes. We will deliver faster download speeds to 3.5 million of the 4.1 million homes and small businesses that rely on copper. The work will create 12,000 extra jobs and be funded by the NBN Co on a commercial basis. The NBN debacle is a classic example of the Liberals and Nationals putting their political interests ahead of the interests of Australians. 

The NBN was always a good idea. It was always going to be a great asset for this nation. It always deserved bipartisan support. But Mr Morrison and his colleagues could not help themselves. Instead of serving the national interest, they attacked and downgraded the project to win votes.

Hindsight shows this cynical opportunism denied millions of Australians early access to useful technology and cost taxpayers billions of dollars in extra costs. Mr Morrison and his colleagues have taken the same reckless approach to climate change, refusing to act on reducing carbon emissions and even ridiculing electric vehicle technology. 

National progress requires rational decision-making. Smart governments harness the benefits of technology to improve people’s daily lives. Instead of lagging behind on new technology, we should be leading the world. 

Indeed, technology will be critical in the next few years as we rebuild our economy in the wake of the pandemic. 

We must not only restore existing industries, but also build new ones in areas such as renewable energy technology and transport. We must also revive manufacturing so we can add value to our food and resources exports instead of sending them all overseas in bulk for others to process and sell back to us. 

But achieving this vision of a future made in Australia won’t happen without a reliable, high-speed National Broadband Network. It will take a Labor Government to fix it.

This opinion piece was first published in the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, 17 November 2021.