Enough is enough: We demand a Royal Commission into the NBN

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The following is an open letter to Australia’s politicians demanding a Royal Commission be held into the politically motivated destruction of the NBN project. If you agree: Sign this petition on Change.org, note your support in the comments below this article, and forward this letter to your political representatives.

To Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and the Australian Labor Party.

To Senator Richard Di Natale and the Australian Greens Party.

To Senator Nick Xenophon and the Nick Xenophon Team.

To those members of the Coalition who we know are as concerned about this issue as we are.

And to every other politician and political party in Australia.

We write to you today with a simple message: Enough is enough.

We demand that you signal your support for a Royal Commission into the politically motivated destruction of the National Broadband Network project.

We watched as then-Opposition Leader Tony Abbott commanded Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2010 to “demolish” the NBN.

We watched as Turnbull attempted to smear and discredit the good name of the honourable founding chief executive of the NBN project.

We watched as Turnbull misled the public repeatedly about the virtues that Telstra’s ageing copper network could bring to the NBN project.

We watched as Turnbull misled the public repeatedly about the cost and time that it would take to deploy the original version of the NBN project.

We watched as Turnbull initiated an extraordinary war with the board of directors of the NBN company and then sacked almost the entirety of that board, without regard for their good names.

We watched as Turnbull sacked almost the entire senior management of the NBN company, without any cause, and without consideration for the public service they did the nation in setting up the company from scratch.

We watched as Turnbull appointed a series of executives with close connections to him personally or the Coalition in their stead.

We watched as Turnbull abandoned the Coalition’s stated NBN policy and NBN rollout promises only months after the 2013 Federal Election.

We watched as Turnbull used Government resources to commission politically compromised analysts to write a series of reports critical of the original NBN vision and supportive of his own.

We watched as the original NBN vision of a near universal fibre network for Australia was torn down and replaced with a patchwork Multi-Technology Mix incorporating legacy copper and HFC cable networks.

We watched as the NBN company was forced to buy thousands of kilometers of brand new copper cable to ensure that the new model would work as planned.

We watched as the cost required and time to roll out the NBN ballooned as a result, again, and again, and again.

We watched as Turnbull stated that there was no need for the NBN company to build its own satellites to service the bush. We watched as private sector alternatives proposed by Turnbull collapsed. We then watched as Turnbull took credit for the NBN’s first satellite when it launched.

We watched as our politicians and regulators started openly discussing their desire to cut the NBN company into chunks and sell it off to the private sector.

We watched as we were repeatedly told by Coalition MPs and Turnbull-appointed NBN executives that there was no need for the NBN to deliver broadband speeds which other countries take for granted.

We watched as the Coalition tried to kill off the only serious oversight mechanism of the NBN, the Senate Select Committee into the project.

We watched as leak after damaging leak exposed a massive set of problems with the Multi-Technology Mix model for the NBN.

We watched as the NBN company called in the Australian Federal Police to go after the whistleblowers who leaked these documents, the Opposition MPs and their staff who received them, and the journalists who published them.

We watched as the chair of the NBN breached the public service’s election Caretaker Conventions, labelling these whistleblowers as “thieves”.

And today we watched as Turnbull endorsed that breach of the Caretaker Conventions, undercutting the very framework of our democracy.

But now we watch no more. Now our watch is ended.

Today we demand.

Today we demand that every political party signal its support for the only action that can reasonably be taken to investigate the tragic situation where Australia’s largest ever and most important infrastructure project has been brought into these straits.

Today we demand that Australia’s politicians do their job and put an end to this politically motivated madness.

Today we demand that you signal your support for a Royal Commission into the destruction of the NBN.

We may not get our wish for this Royal Commission today.

We may not get it this decade.

But there is no doubt that we will get it.

We will get it because an overwhelming body of evidence exists of severely questionable behaviour in the political management of this project.

We will get it because a Royal Commission is the only mechanism that has sufficient power and independence to investigate the tragic farce that the NBN project has become.

And we will get it because that is what justice and rationality demands.

The National Broadband Network project is literally the foundational infrastructure which will see Australia’s broadband needs for the next century, underpinning all aspects of business, government and our private lives.

We must know how and why this project has been torn down.

So that those who did it can be held to account for their actions.

And so that a tragic farce of this magnitude can never, ever, happen again.

160 COMMENTS

  1. Today we demand that you signal your support for a Royal Commission into the destruction of the NBN.

    To fookin right we do!!!

    Royal Commission ASAP to uncover the blatant cronyism and corruption by the liberal party in their destruction of the NBN while lining their mates pockets for righting fraudulent reports and reviews!!!!

  2. CLASS ACTION. Industry should all sue at once. Not only for ignoring industry but holding the economy back.

  3. +1 Renai. Been saying it for months. They can’t be allowed to get away with this corrupt and criminal behaviour.

  4. Exactly right. What could have been a fantastic piece of national infrastructure has been systematically destroyed.
    (PS. If the letter is also being sent directly, and hasn’t been yet, I would also personally name Oakeshott, Windsor and Wilkie for their support as well)

  5. Nice start Renai, but to really get this moving, you need publicity. Put together a crowdsourced funding proposal to get it published in all the national papers, full page. If we are serious about this, we need to put our money where our mouths are. I am prepared to put in, are you?

    • yep, it’s corruption + cronyism + Fraud on a giant scale!!!

      We need these bastards Jailed for destroying OUR nbn!!!

      • The cronyism is the part that demands an investigation. Putting Ziggy and co in charge, with their clear connections to everything Liberal is a jobs for the boys scenario. There appears to be questions over the arms length arrangement there, which alone should be enough.

        When you add everything else in on top of that it really adds up, but thats where a Royal Commission could start.

        • Start with all the porkies Turnbull and the Murdoch press told about the nbn while the libs where in opposition, oh and the bullying of Mike Quigley!

  6. I endorse this article.

    Too much money and time have been spent, and too much denial and refusal to cooperate when people looks for the facts of it, to sort it out with a simple inquiry.

  7. Oooh I’m all a flutter! ;-)

    Sterling (and stirring) piece and I agree with the sentiments wholeheartedly. The destruction of the NBN. the negative impact on the national economy and negative impact on this countries future should not be dismissed so lightly. Questions need to be answered – not evaded in numerous Senate Committee inquiries on the basis of CiC and ‘take on notice’ only to be to be given scant importance at a later date.

  8. Signed, but I fear this will not materialise unless LNP lose Government this election.

    • That’s a given, the Lib’s are hardly going to want a RC to expose their own fuck ups are they!

      everyone should make sure they #PutTheLiberalsLast

  9. +1. Need to spread the word.

    Actually we should implement policy where in an official petition surpassing XX amount of signatures online or by mail etc, the government will turn an eye to it and do something about it, like in the US.

    • Not really too late – there have been constant disastrous decisions made over the past two years as well which will contribute to the downfall!

  10. There’s no doubt in my mind a R.C. is warranted and in the best interests of our country however I add it must have suitable terms of reference!

  11. Today we demand that Australia’s politicians do their job and put an end to this politically motivated madness.

    +1

  12. I think it should be emphasized that everyone should not just sign the petition, but go out of your way to call or email your representative, or any major party that you know of, and ask them to support this royal commission.

    When you contact them it carries a lot more weight, and is the only way you will see traction on this.

    You can find their contact details on their websites, and often a form to email them if you don’t want to call.

    Make it a succinct and simple statement. There are billions of dollars at stake, we need a royal commission to make sure that the countries interests are protected.

  13. hey folks,

    just as an FYI, I will be taking the entire petition with me to Parliament when it starts sitting after the Federal Election, and presenting it to Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare and Greens Communications Spokesperson, Senator Scott Ludlam.

    I will present it to them, with the appropriate forms, and request that they table it in Federal Parliament, to signal to the Parliament the will of the people on this matter.

    If they refuse to table it, I will be highlighting that on Delimiter, and I will ask other MPs to table it.

    By hook or by crook, our view will be heard on this issue.

    Cheers,

    Renai

    • er, ummmm…Renai, what makes you think Clare will be SHADOW Communications Minister AFTER the election…? ;)

      • well I doubt his counterpart will table such a thing ;)

        (whether that be shadow or not after the election)

      • The way the polls (and bookies) are going, the LPA will get a slim majority (but not control of the senate).

      • Guess we need to wait and see how many folks sign the petition.

        Most parties are political whores these days, and even if the “majors” won’t support it, it’ll come down to which minor party or independent they’ll need in the senate as to if it’ll happen or not.

    • “Renai LeMay 16/06/2016 at 5:22 pm
      hey folks,
      just as an FYI, I will be taking the entire petition with me to Parliament when it starts sitting after the Federal Election, and presenting it to Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare and Greens Communications Spokesperson, Senator Scott Ludlam.”

      So you are presuming the ALP won’t win the election? ;))

      • So you are presuming the ALP won’t win the election? ;))

        Most polls/analysts are saying the LPA will lose a lot of seats, but still retain power in the lower house (reps).

        They will not get a majority in the senate however, so they’ll need to do a lot of deals to get things though, if the minors/independants see enough milage in it, they may decide to leverage it.

    • just as an FYI, I will be taking the entire petition with me to Parliament when it starts sitting after the Federal Election, and presenting it to Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare and Greens Communications Spokesperson, Senator Scott Ludlam.

      Good stuff. Thanks Renai.

      Did you consider https://www.communityrun.org/ ?

      Getup! started the site for community run/Grass roots campaigns, so it encompases a lot more than just a poll, and if it does well there, GetUp! may even get behind it.

    • Best of luck Renai but I don’t see you (or anyone else for that matter) getting much traction on this issue.

      You said:

      But there is no doubt that we will get it.

      We will get it because an overwhelming body of evidence exists of severely questionable behaviour in the political management of this project.

      We will get it because a Royal Commission is the only mechanism that has sufficient power and independence to investigate the tragic farce that the NBN project has become.

      And we will get it because that is what justice and rationality demands.

      Unfortunately, it’s politically expedient for both parties to not poke around this too much. The ALP made a dogs breakfast of NBN Mk I & II, and the LNP brought their own special brand of retarded to the mix. The electorate just doesn’t seem that interested, and there are far easier things to launch partisan crucifixions over that garner far more interest.

      That everything you’ve said is accurate doesn’t really matter in the current political environment.

  14. We need the truth as these people are not looking after Australia’s interest Sign me up.

  15. -1!

    Who needs a friggin’ royal friggin’ commission! Yet another waste of time and money!

    If it wasn’t for the NBN, this site wouldn’t exist.

    Sign me out. Get a friggin’ royal commission into politicians in general, or pedophiles in politics or the judiciary, or why tradies never friggin’ turn up on time.

    If you’re gonna do a royal commission, do it on something worthwhile.

    The friggin’ NBN ain’t worth it. But you lot clearly have tons of free time on your hands and plenty of tax money you’re willing to donate to figure out why Kevin Rudd was so clueless and gutless as to promise an FTTN $4.7 billion friggin CrapNBN in the first place.

    If Kevin wasn’t such a wuss he’d have gone the whole hog in the first place and it would have been finished by now. I grant MTM is Malcolm Turnbull’s Mess but to compound this with friggin’ more friggin’ chitty chitty chat chat with a friggin’ royal commission is such a friggin’ waste of time you may as well replace every dayum word in this article and this comment with the word friggin’.

    • @ Friggin NO – It is always refreshing to see such a well thought out and mature comment when it comes to Australia’s biggest infrastructure construction that will affect generations to come….

    • Only a RC has the power to investigate and compel evidence in a situation like this. Anything else would be stonewalled.

      And if you question the importance, how about the theft of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to prop up Telstra and institutionalise it as the wholesale monopoly owner of almost all the fibre in the country try, free to gouge the nation for decades if not centuries to come? Insider trading is illegal, but this is fraud, market manipulation and industrial sabotage all rolled into the largest clear cut case of corruption in word history (if it gets prosecuted). That seems pretty compelling to me…

    • “Who needs a friggin’ royal friggin’ commission!”
      Australia.

      “If you’re gonna do a royal commission, do it on something worthwhile.”
      Something worthwhile = not the largest, most expensive national infrastructure project the country has ever undertaken?

      “If Kevin wasn’t such a wuss he’d have gone the whole hog in the first place and it would have been finished by now.”
      How do plan to blame Kevin for a project not due to be completed before 2021 when it was interrupted by the opposition in 2013?

      You’re clueless.

    • If you’re gonna do a royal commission, do it on something worthwhile.

      An “up to” $56b project isn’t a worthwhile thing to do a RC on? Pray tell, what is then??

  16. I covered a fair portion of the points made, ran out of space in the petition comments… then read the article and points, calling for the petition. The very fact that the points can mostly be recalled from memory, were discussed publicly and identified as clear mistakes, generally long before any of them were even planned or implemented {power requirements for FTTN nodes -NBN was surprised when it proved difficult and expensive?}, when many were straining to have their voices heard and notifying the relevant parties of the mistakes, proves the overall misconduct. Further example, how can there be an illegal whistleblower problem, and confidential documents, when we were promised transparency in the previous election?

    Was there any NBN related political promise kept at all? Just the “destroy the NBN” directive by Abbot?
    If not, how can voters choose the least reprehensible lie at election time.
    When a party reverses major election platforms, or abandons “core promises”, then the entire reason for their election also vanishes and should result in the government being dissolved (or incarcerated). This brings to mind both Gillard’s post-election backflips, and Malcolm’s cheaper faster sooner statements (lacking his usual long winded non-commitments to saying anything at all)
    Time to buy gumboots and move to NZ.

    • We’ll considered and thoughtful points.

      Did you sign the petition? Sometimes they listen if enough do it, especially in a tight election ;o)

  17. Hi all :)

    Lurked, never msg’d before here… until now;

    Below is my petition reason,(remembered to go back & insert my paragrahs on this post though.. lol.. God I hate mini comment boxes, especially when you’re not sure if clicking “return” submits the forms, instead of adds paragrahs).

    =====
    The future of our country rested on the original 93% FTTH network design,(with extra fiber network & fixed wireless footprint likely to naturally build out more over time due to Actual profits, from this truly National Broadband Network).

    Through lies & outright deceit this network for Australias’ future was ultimately destroyed through Liberal/National jealously of a Labor idea;

    Instead of supported & maybe appropriately refined further, for the good of the nation, as a whole.

    I see, as many people knowlegable about network technology do, this act by the Liberal & National parties to ultimately be criminal & treasonous against our citizens.

    We now need a Royal Commision to allow those fooled by these criminals to see them truly for what they are & to hopefully, never again have future visions, thought of & enacted by any party, destroyed solely for spiteful reasons & sold to the public as the appropriate thing to do via lies & deception.

    =====

    Hoping you guys/gals like what I wrote :)

      • Thankyou, thankyou :D

        Eventually I’ll likely become a new nick; As what I quote here is obviously under my real name on the petition; Pity aliases couldn’t be used on the comment view.

        Haven’t noticed the usual libtrolls here yet; Wonder if their skype is maybe buffering too much to be-able to get their new orders & points of irrelivence from party HQ.. lol XD

        • If you sign up for a sub, just ask Renai to change it to what you’d like, he was very helpful when I asked him :o)

          Otherwise, just fill the fields each time you post (most browsers will learn to autofill it).

  18. Me too. Only with a RC will we know just what has happened. The NBN should have been a bipartisan, national project which would have been for the good of the nation. Petty politics destroyed the NBN, those people who orchestrated it all must be taken to task for their failed duty of care to the public, for their reckless sabotage and economic negligence.

    • Only with a RC will we know just what has happened.

      This is the crux of it for me, I just want to know what actually happened, when and by whose orders. There’s a lot of “he said, she said” and finger pointing going on, and there seems to be some really dodgy numbers happening (does anyone really buy that the original plan blew out by triple “overnight” when the LPA came to power?….well, besides Richard?).

      Only an RC will really sort it out.

  19. +1 and signed. Awesome article, reviewing the timeline of destruction was sobering. Abbott, Turnbull and co deserve custodial sentences for their wanton disregard of taxpayers money now and in future wasted on building, sustaining and eventually replacing the MTM. I hope Labor changes its view and supports an RC.

  20. Very well-written article, congratulations! It eloquently expresses the reasons for the anger and frustration I have been experiencing for the last three years due to the criminal destruction of what was once going to be a first-rate national broadband network with all its benefits for education, innovation, the digital economy, health, decentralisation, etc. Only a royal commission can bring out into the open what really happened and can bring the individuals responsible to account. I signed the petition and posted it on Facebook and Twitter.
    Great initiative, Renai! Someone had to do it. You did it better than anyone could. Thank you!

  21. I’m dismayed at the deliberate vandalism of a project that provides the basic infrastructure required to support the kind of innovative nation that Australia needs to be to survive the 21st century.

  22. Stop pussyfooting around. Turnbull did not mislead. He LIED. There are a billion blog posts and comments and tweets saying government ministers are liars and not a single defamation action has been brought. (Probably because there’s so much evidence.)

  23. I too support a royal commission.

    The entire project from the very start was crippled with the CVC. There is no way that the NBN RSP can offer anything below 500:1 ratios at the CVC pricing point, when you combine in wholesale bandwidth charges and the other expenses (racks, customer services, plant costs etc).

    The NBN was crippled to ensure that the corporate market wouldn’t abandon their $20k a month 100mbps ethernet services. Low contention ratios coupled with good QoS in the network would mean that the corporates could effectively run all of the layer 3+ services on their own networks.

    Abandoning overpriced data centres with their expense usage plans and costly interconnects.

    I’ve worked in telco for almost 20 years, much of in the wholesale and corporate space and I can tell you that that there are people out there who are earning sickening amounts of money because of the status quo.

    Giving everyone what the NBN was truly meant to provide i.e. low contention fibre 100mbps + internet would have seen many of these individuals lose vast amounts of money.

    Worse the blow in the project is just another illustrate of the greed that is going on in the industry and our political world. These blows outs, tens of billions of dollars at a time are design to enrich a very small group of people.

    A royal commission is urgently required.

    • While I dont like the AVC/CVC system, it was always intended that the CVC would drop as the NBN expanded and revenues started coming in. NBN Co only ever needed to reach a 7% IRR and the CVC revenues where the main contributor to NBN meeting that, whenever NBN exceeded the 7% IRR the CVC costs was supposed to be reduced.

      It’s a pretty crude funding mechanism but it would have worked well for the 14 POI model in the short to medium term. The 121 POI model imposed by the ACCC at the behest of Telstra, Optus and Pipe was what really made it unworkable due to the colossal up-front costs and backhaul costs required to support the 121 POI model.

      Under the original plan you needed backhaul to only 14 POI’s and about $5k worth of equipment per POI – $70k Capex for national coverage. Compare that to the 121 POI model which requires around $600k capex and 9x the ongoing backhaul opex.

      The CVC costs pale in comparison to the damage the ACCC did by forcing the 121 POI model onto the NBN. Conroy should have stepped in and overrode the ACCC, had he done that we’d still have a competitive ISP landscape!

      • The 121 POI issue is only a problem if a small RSP wants to try and support a nationwide network, which many small RSP’s don’t, they just service a particular area/region.

        • Even for the larger ISP’s it does add significant opex costs for backhaul if they want a national footprint.

  24. Such an obviously important piece of infrastructure for a economy that suffers the tyranny of distance. Support.

  25. Signed. Using my limited internet connection while overseas. The use of my limited bandwidth here is worth it.

  26. The only poll that has any meaning and is a true and fair representation of what the voters want will be on July 2nd.

    • Elections are a broad-brush, “who do you want running the country” poll.

      To claim they provide a mandate for any one specific policy is disingenuous at best. The NBN is a clear example. A (slim) majority of Australians wanted Labor out of government three years ago, but the NBN project itself had approval ratings above 80%. The petition to retain FttP got more than a quarter of a million signatures. And still they tore it down.

      If you want a mandate for a specific policy, put it to a plebiscite. Otherwise, stop trying to tell people you have a ‘mandate’ to do something when every single opinion poll clearly indicates the contrary.

      • Exactly. As recent polls at ZDNet show, 86% of Australians strongly support the NBN, but in a separate poll, 90% see other issues (jobs, economy, health, education, etc) as more important when asked to put them on a scale.

    • Always the one to bring politics into what should only ever be a rollout for the benefit of the nation as a whole, how typical.

    • The only poll that has any meaning and is a true and fair representation of what the voters want will be on July 2nd.

      What an invalid thing to say.

      • So a social website where people invite themselves to vote and one person can vote multiple times and the questions are loaded to get the agenda outcome required is the fairest way to dictate NBN policy?

        umm ok.

        LOL

        • I didn’t invite myself to vote Renai did. it also doesn’t let me vote again (do you know some sneaky underhanded way to do so?? Wouldn’t surprise me ;o)).

          lol

          • I didn’t vote because it’s optional if you don’t agree with the questions and comment.

            :)

          • I didn’t vote because it’s optional if you don’t agree with the questions and comment.

            Then you have no right to comment at all ;o)

  27. I’m going to sign, but sadly I think this is just politics.

    They destroyed the NBN, 100%, they did it on purpose 100%, they did it not for the good of Australians, but so they had something to attack the “other side” with.

    I’m not sure deciding/saying something (and more or less living up to it) as a promise so that you can win an election is actually illegal is it?

    If I ran an election campaign on the promise to: “Remove all roads”, and when I get elected proceed to remove roads … is that really illegal? (assuming the roads I remove I do so within the framework of the current road building/maintenance laws).

    Still signing because I think we need it done, even if the final report will say: “Politics makes bad outcomes sometimes.”

    • What was promised was 25Mb to all Australians in the first term. Guaranteed, fully costed for $29.5B, and if they did it, fair enough. The main problem people had here was that they knew it was BS, in fact there was many and argument over with Renai who seemed to be a more trusting sole.
      What we got was an expensive, delayed rollout of soon to be obsolete technology with massive increases in OPEX and upgrade costs and huge loss of revenue. We now have an inadequate satellite system because to trying to keep the cost of their crap solution down they have doubled the number of people the satellites must support and limited those on them to small data quotas. It was pretty obvious what is happening, would happen, if you knew what they were trying to do and the technology involved. But they weren’t the people involved in designing this cluster fuck. They were all ignored for reports by economists and “analysts” with no background in technology.

    • If I ran an election campaign on the promise to: “Remove all roads”, and when I get elected proceed to remove roads … is that really illegal?

      It could well have “illegal” parts.

      If your evidence to “Remove all roads” was fabricated/paid for a specific outcome, and the contracts you handed out to rip them up, based on the fabricated/paid for “evidence”, then I’d consider that illegal…

  28. I think this is a waste of time, Turnbull has already ignored the biggest petition ever signed in Australia history, what makes you think that this one will be any different

    • Malcolm, this is for Labor if they win gov, clearly the Libs dont want anyone prying into their corruption (eg see ICAC).

  29. A royal commission is long overdue. Lets take the politics out of the project and insert some truth.

  30. Richard, Reality, Mathew and anyone else opposed to the FTTP NBN vision.

    Here is your chance. You all so firmly believe that the NBN was flawed from the start. A royal commission will look at the lot. If the Coalition made decisions to counteract issues with the original Labor plan this information will be revealed. If the Coalition made decisions based on true and reasonable figures, then this will be revealed, and you will finally be able to put all of us “Fanboys” in our place.

    So sign, or relegate yourselves as political shills and stooges forever.

    • There is no need for a expensive waste of time Royal Commission which will drag on for ages, the simple fact is the MtM model FTTN, FTTP, HFC, FTTB, fixed wireless and satellite is now well established irrespective of a Labor or Coalition win on July 2nd.

      The only chance for a Royal Commission is if Labor win, but they have said already they are not doing one, it maybe be a case of careful of what you ask for eh?

      • Parts of the Mtm may be well established, but don’t try the con of saying that all of the Mtm is well established.

        • The con is Labor adding 2m to the FTTP rollout which of course includes greenfields, roll some dice and say it will only be a billion more than the Coalition upper funding limit (hey what a coincidence), and say it will all be finished by 2022, then to make that finish date more palatable roll some dice again and say that’s the year the Coalition rollout is ‘likely’ to finish anyway.

          Labor keep the Coalition HFC model and keep the Coalition FTTB model, so if the Coaltion come out with a adjustment to their policy and say they will increase the FTTP footprint by two million and one it is therefore automatically a better policy?

      • Much better to waste it on a gay marriage plebiscite to delay a decision on gay marriage as long as possible hey?
        I Turnbull’s comments about about the anti-gay Muslim cleric rather amusing, has he had a look at his own party lately?

      • There is no need for a expensive waste of time Royal Commission which will drag on for ages, the simple fact is the MtM model FTTN, FTTP, HFC, FTTB, fixed wireless and satellite is now well established irrespective of a Labor or Coalition win on July 2nd.

        All of which Labor will stick with, besides the FttN part, cause the FttN part sucks goats nuts :o)

      • I’d like to say I am surprised by your response Reality. But I really am not.

        Also I would like to point out, if there was a Royal Commission, and it found that Labor had done dodgy stuff as well, then I would be more than pleased.

        Unlike you, I support the plan, not the party.

      • Failed HFC alain…

        Well that’s what you said before the Coalition adopted it…

        *sigh*

        Apology accepted

  31. You forgot to mention that a lot of the former telstra shills recruited to nbnco upper management actually held a significant amount of telstra shares, whom i’m sure were no doubt influential with “awarding” telstra with contracts to buy out the copper + HFC networks, as well as any costs with remediation etc.
    Greg Adcock, Justin Milne, JB Rousselot etc.

  32. It’s such a shame what happened to Delimiter, Renai.

    You have turned one of my most respected technology news websites in Australia into a Coalition bashing site.

    All the comments these days are just trolls bashing the LNP and your opinion no longer even shows the balance and depth that made this site unique once upon a time.

    Here you are speaking as if ALP and the NBNCo of the time never misled the public on costings or misled the public on the NBN rollout or even their previous stance on their providing information to public. Even disregarding Quigley’s breach of caretaker provisions at the last election, where was the outrage then.

    I know that the LNP certainly has a lot to answer for but it is no excuse for a journalist like yourself to not to provide balanced reporting. You even reported that the recent ALP NBN policy release was a dream come true even though they only changed some premises from FTTN to FTTP and have not even committed to replacing the HFC.

    Please clean up this website and at least try and show some balance as it used to be, first by at least calling out the now revealed ALP official that you placed on a pedestal for being a so called righteous “whistleblower” with the best intentions.

    • “Here you are speaking as if ALP and the NBNCo of the time never misled the public on costings or misled the public on the NBN rollout or even their previous stance on their providing information to public.”

      Because they never did. After the change of government in 2013, Turnbull himself initiated a forensic audit that found nothing like what you are describing. They found nothing that was concealed from the public.

    • And Jack, the LNP really deserves to be bashed in this case. Out of about a million customers on NBN to date, 950,000 are on Labor’s rollout after 2 years and 9 months of LNP government. That’s after supposedly having a rollout “costed and ready to roll” (their words) and it’s just for starters.

      “Even disregarding Quigley’s breach of caretaker provisions at the last election, where was the outrage then.”

      If there was, that’s perfectly valid. But it’s all you seem to have.

      • Anything improper will come out in the RC, so why is this bloke against it? Guess it was soooo useful to have a RC into the “pink batts” after there had already been several enquiries. Does this bloke know how many people die on building sites every year?

    • Dear Jack,

      Please explain why the “Coalition” deserve any kudos for what they have done with the NBN?

      And I notice your post doesn’t actually give them any, but as usual for a Lib shill, puts the boot into Labor.

      Perhaps if you think beyond the Lib/Lab duopoly, things might make more sense to you?

      Just a thought.

    • “Even disregarding Quigley’s breach of caretaker provisions at the last election, where was the outrage then.”

      It was right here. I believe he was more circumspect in 2013.

      https://delimiter.com.au/2010/08/13/election-rant-2-nbn-cos-outrageous-labor-favor/

      “the now revealed ALP official that you placed on a pedestal for being a so called righteous “whistleblower” with the best intentions.”

      First I’ve heard of that. I definitely will follow that up — just reading The Australian’s article on that now. Expect an article tomorrow.

      I take your point with regard to balance on Delimiter. It is true that we do get stuck into the Coalition a lot. However, I will note that I am willing to praise the Coalition when it does something good. For example:

      https://delimiter.com.au/2015/12/07/truth-turnbulls-innovation-policy-hail-mary-slam-dunk-australian-technologists-waited-decades/

      There is a natural tendency towards the media working with the Opposition of the day towards the aim of holding the Government to account. The Govt, after all, holds the power.

      And Delimiter’s Statement of Principles implies that we are explicitly pro-FTTP.

      https://delimiter.com.au/statement-of-principles/

      However, it may be that I have gone too far sometimes, in order to try and balance the reporting of outlets such as the Australian. I’ll keep your comments in mind for future pieces.

      Thanks for the criticism. We do indeed need more alternative voices on Delimiter.

  33. +1 and signed.

    FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, Shorten and Natale – pay attention!

    Any flack thrown Labors way in a RC would pale in comparison to what has occurred in the past 3 years. Australia needs justice.

  34. Time to bring this country into the new century.
    A lot of the older generation have been mislead by this stupid government into believing that dial up is all you need. Even my father has been on wifi dongle, and now Telstra cable, and has seen the difference, but that isn’t the real NBN (ie:fibre). All most of the public know is what they are given.
    FTTH (Fibre To The Home) is where it is at.
    Don’t believe what the idiot politicians tell you, lets see them live on the same bandwidth that the average person gets, I don’t think so.

  35. Oh hell yes, and signed.
    BTW Estonia is getting nationwide 10Gbps, yes it’s smaller but that’s beside the point. Even Estonia gets it, how can the coalition not?

  36. Thank goodness someone has decided that enough is enough and got something going that will eventually satisfy these stupid Politicians that people only want faster Internet speeds to download Porn and other illegal activities. Faster speeds are essential particularly in Industry and Education, even Politicians have been known to use the Internet from time to time and those that do use it must get as frustrated as the rest of us when you need some data fast but the computer comes to a virtual standstill because it can’t get access to the speed it needs. There again I suppose it is not a problem here because they will claim that they need the faster speeds and have access to it in their offices. Michael Turnbull keeps cramming it down our throats about him having a ‘Business’ background but can’t get his head round to seeing that businesses throughout the country are crying out for a faster NBN rollout, and to the premises NOT the Node. Simmo.

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