News, Telecommunications - Wednesday, June 12, 2013 15:21 - 146 Comments

Coalition NBN completed ‘six years faster’:
False claims from Liberal MP

news A Queensland Liberal MP who has been described as a “Malcolm Turnbull lieutenant” and a long-time critic of Labor’s popular National Broadband Network policy has written a controversial letter to his constituents making a number of false claims about the project, including the claim that the Coalition’s version could be completed “six years earlier”.

According to the letter seen by Delimiter (click right to see a large version), Steven Ciobo wrote to constituents in early June this year on the issue. The MP’s electorate of Moncrieff contains areas such as Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast. “Access to fast broadband is no longer a want — it is rapidly becoming a need for Gold Coast households and businesses,” Ciobo wrote. “The National Broadband Network sounds promising when you read the headlines, however the reality for you is quite different.”

Ciobo told constituents that in their neighbourhood, NBN Co’s rollout website currently showed “no planned rollout”. “This means there will be no NBN or any broadband improvements in your neighbourhood for at least three years,” he wrote.

The Liberal MP added that when Labor first announced the NBN in 2007, it had said the project would be completed in by 2013 at a cost of around $4.7 billion. “Since then, Labor changed the forecast and said it would cost taxpayers $37 billion and be completed by 2021,” Ciobo added. “Now we know it is actually going to cost taxpayers around $94 billion and won’t be completed until 2025.” Ciobo wrote that Labor was “wasting even more taxpayers’ money by building over existing fast broadband networks like cable”, but was leaving many areas of the Gold Coast “without any service at all or with very limited speed”.

Under the Coalition’s rival proposal, Ciobo wrote, areas on the Gold Coast “like your suburb” with “the poorest broadband” would receive priority. “The Coalition plan will see the National Broadband Network completed six years earlier than Labor’s NBN, with monthly prices projected to be 29 percent cheaper, with minimum download speeds of 25Mbps, rising to 50Mbps by 2019,” he wrote. “Importantly, the Coalition’s plan will save taxpayers over $60 billion dollars.” Continue…