The Seven Broken Promises of Malcolm Turnbull Regarding The NBN

Once upon a time Australia was going to have a high class National Broadband Network. Australians would be able to get news and weather updates, watch Netflix and cat videos at super fast speeds with a click of the mouse in a blink of an eye. The future was about to arrive – then Turnbull made seven promises which changed it all

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The Prime Minister likes to present himself as a gentleman, a man true to his word and that he stands up for his convictions. However, the public record paints a very different picture. Especially when it comes to the national broadband network (NBN) and his time as Communications Minister.
Malcolm Turnbull made seven promises regarding the national broadband network and RealNewsOne has looked at these seven promises and the reality of the situation. The picture it paints is the prime minister is not a man who keeps his word.

Promise number one: Turnbull promised that all homes will have 25 mbps by 2016. The reality? the latest forecast shows that it will be 2020 , a more realistic expectation is it would be more likely June 2022 before any homes will have 25 mbps.

Promise number two – cheaper to build: When the NBN was first introduced by the Gillard government, the opposition at the time railed against it and claimed that it would cost too much for it to be built.

After the coalition won government in 2013 they introduced a “no frills” national broadband network . That lacklustre NBN was to cost Australian taxpayers $29.5 billion. This has now blown out to $56 billion. The original plan developed by the Labor government was to cost $45 billion, $10 billion less than Turnbull’s plan. The coalition government has had to borrow $20 billion just to meet the costs of their version of the NBN.

Promise number three – more affordable for consumers: Closely related to promise number two, The Australian tax payer was told that it would be more affordable for consumers. The reality of this promise is Australians are now paying the same price for a copper connection as for a fibre connection. To make things worse, residence and small businesses who want to have fibre have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to get it installed.

Promise number four – ‘underserviced areas to be served first’: The rollout of the NBN has  been a headache for Malcolm Turnbull and while the cost of the rollout has blowing out and has been disorganised this has undermined the promise that was made about “underserviced areas will served first”. The reality of this promise is, approximately half 1 million homes with poor broadband will still be waiting for the installation of the national broadband network in 2018.

Promise number five –new homes will get optic fibre: Any new homes built a new estates will get whatever technology NBN code or private providers deem ‘cost effective’. In some instances this has meant that new homes have fibre to the house, however, have the same speed as copper connections.

Promise number six – CBDs will have fibre: New homes in new estates were promised that they will have optic fibre, Turnbull made the promise that Business Districts will get fibre. In reality however, parts of the central business district like Brisbane have been left with second rate cooper installation.

Promise number seven-transparency: Turnbull promised that there would be maximum transparency for the installation and rollout of the national broadband network across Australia. Contracts and roll out information regarding the national broadband network has been kept secret. With the Turnbull government is refusing to release for business cases. This is not example of levels being paranoid and secretive about the second rate lacklustre NBN they have forced upon Australians.

Because of the seven broken promises and bad decisions made by the coalition government, especially Malcolm Turnbull, Australia is going to have to bear the consequences of these poor decisions for years to come.