Biased Brisbane Broadband Build is yet more proof that Labor’s NBN has always been about politics

‘Today’s revelation of blatant political bias in Labor’s NBN rollout in Brisbane is the latest reminder that Labor’s NBN has been politically motivated right from the start’, Paul Fletcher Federal Member for Bradfield said today.

NBN Co roll-out maps released last week reveal that its Brisbane rollout is strongly biased towards Labor held seats – and particularly seats held by three of Labor’s most senior figures.

The electorates of Lilley (held by Treasurer Wayne Swan) and Griffith (held by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd) achieve 100 per cent coverage on the NBN maps.  Likewise, in the electorate of Rankin (held by Trade Minister Craig Emerson) all but two suburbs are covered by the three year rollout plan.

In the greater Brisbane area, the Labor-held seats of Rankin, Moreton, Lilley and Griffith also achieve significantly more coverage than the neighbouring LNP-held electorates of Brisbane, Ryan, Dickson and Wright.

‘Stephen Conroy was at pains last week to argue that there was no political bias, and the number of Labor seats receiving the NBN was similar to the number of Coalition seats,’ Mr Fletcher said.

‘But as the Coalition’s detailed analysis of NBN’s suburb by suburb rollout promises in Brisbane reveals, this claim from Stephen Conroy is no more reliable than any of the other claims he has made about broadband.

‘Five years ago, Conroy promised Australians he would build a fixed broadband network to serve 98 per cent of Australian premises at a cost to taxpayers of $4.7 billion.

‘Here we are, five years later, and according to numbers disclosed by NBN Co last week, it has passed 18,200 premises so far.  This is less than two tenths of one per cent of the target of over 10 million premises.

‘Conroy told us in 2007 – and again in 2009 - that there would be extensive private sector investment in NBN, so taxpayers would only foot part of the bill at most.

 ‘But that promise lasted about as long as Julia Gillard’s promise that there would be no carbon tax under a government she led.

‘NBN is now a one hundred per cent tax payer funded venture – and the total cost looks likely to surge past $50 billion.

‘It is no wonder that respected former head of NSW Treasury and President of the Australian Institute of Public Administration, Percy Allen, is reported in the Sydney Morning Herald today as believing that Labor’s NBN will be a financial disaster that will set back Labor’s image decades, rebranding it as the party of waste and extravagance.’

‘As our Communications Spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has repeatedly said, the Coalition will offer a less costly alternative that delivers better broadband sooner in areas that have poor service.

‘The combination of a rollout plan biased by political objectives, and a wasteful and extravagant network design is absolutely toxic for taxpayers. If you were wanting to find the most wasteful possible way to build a broadband network, Labor’s NBN would be it,’ Mr Fletcher, a former senior executive of a large telecommunications company, concluded.