Turnbull ignores NBN in campaign launch while Shorten goes hard

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news Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appears to have deliberately avoided mentioning the National Broadband Network in the official Liberal election campaign launch, in stark contrast to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who has mentioned Labor’s pledge for a “first-rate” NBN frequently over the past several days.

Yesterday Turnbull led the Liberal Party’s official campaign launch in Homebush. Although the election campaign has been in full swing for several months, this style of launch is seen as an important rallying event for political parties.

The Coalition has not launched a new NBN policy for this year’s Federal Election, and at the launch Turnbull gave every indication that no further policy announcements in this area would be forthcoming.

In his speech at the event, Turnbull failed to mention the NBN, telecommunications policy or even the Coalition’s new mobile blackspots policy.

Instead, Turnbull focused on the need for broader economic leadership and stability, as well as a focus on innovation.

“A strong economy means we can fund our Innovation and Science Agenda to ensure our kids learn the digital skills of the 21st century, our research is commercialised to create jobs here at home and investors support start-up companies,” Turnbull told the audience.
 
“It means that a smart kid who wants to be an engineer can work at the cutting edge of technology here in Australia – because our advanced manufacturing is forging ahead supported by our defence industry investment plan.”

“More diverse, more innovative, smarter, more productive – that’s the economy that wins, and keeps on winning. An economy that is resilient – supporting enterprise, investment and innovation so Australians can seize the opportunities of our times but also handle the challenges and headwinds.”

“Our plan invests over a billion dollars to promote leading-edge innovation in our industries and to prepare our children for the jobs of the future.”

Turnbull has been criticised over the past nine months for claiming a focus on ‘innovation’ policy, while implementing technically inferior technologies as part of the NBN, such as Fibre to the Node and HFC cable.

In contrast, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has focused heavily on Labor’s new NBN policy as part of a series of events held over the past several days.

Labor’s new NBN policy adopts a number of elements of the Coalition’s policy — such as its use of HFC cable — but will also see FTTN dumped as a technology, with a focus instead on Labor’s preferred Fibre to the Premises model.

At a similar launch in Brisbane, Shorten said Australia could not have stability when the country received “a second-rate NBN”.

“Labor’s first-rate NBN, will help small businesses in the regions sell their products and services in our broader region,” the Opposition Leader told the audience. “We want the best technology for Australians because the world’s best is only just good enough for our country.”

“We will end the buffering nightmare and build a first-class NBN for the 21st century.”

Shorten had made similar comments at a number of events over the past several days, as has Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek and Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen.

“People are sick and tired of Malcolm Turnbull flogging them second-rate technology. The long-buffering nightmare of the Turnbull era could well be at an end if we get elected,” Shorten said at a doorstop in Townsville.

opinion/analysis
It’s always debatable how many people actually cast their vote in Australia primarily on the basis of technology policy issues such as the NBN. Probably there aren’t that many people who do, compared to the general population. There are quite a lot of other issues to weigh up when choosing your political representatives, after all.

However, what is not debatable is the fact that many Australians do include issues such as technology policy as one of the key factors in voting.

Over the weekend we saw a very clear signal from Australia’s two major sides of politics in terms of what they think about the NBN as a policy platform.

The Coalition completely ignored the issue — as it has been largely ignoring it for years (with the exception of mobile blackspots, which they have been leading Labor on), while Labor placed the issue front and center at a number of events.

Turnbull does not want to talk about the NBN, while Shorten and his senior team do. That should give you a very big clue as to the way that the project will be treated following this Federal Election, whoever wins.

Image credit: Office of Malcolm Turnbull

77 COMMENTS

  1. They’ve already done their job and delivered people ADSL. They’ve blown the budget. So all that is left now is to sell the waste back to Telstra

  2. The mission was to wreck the NBN.
    Mission accomplished.
    Telstra and Rupert are pleased. A cosy board position and a Cayman Islands villa for the wreckers.

  3. Not surprised. It was always an issue the coalition clowns just wanted to go away ever since they were unable to convince the independents back in 2010 with their substandard patchwork plan. Such an embarrassing defeat for them. Now that they are directing GimpCo they wouldn’t want any attention drawn to the fact that it is an even bigger disaster than we anticipated, that there is very little to show for what they promised in 2013 (25mbps for all by the end of 2016) will only cause more embarrassment. Amazing to think there were actually some people gullible enough to believe them.

    • Considering that 84% are willingly choosing to connect at 25Mbps or slower I suspect it isn’t a significant issue.

      Knowing that Labor Party supports willing repost images of Labor Party policy as a failure I’d suggest most people don’t understand what Labor are promising.

        • The real question is which one is more spammier.
          Mathew’s non-stop copy & paste 25mbps or “I just made $6864 for posting this!”
          *rubs chin*

          • well one of them obviously doesn’t work in Australia their interwebs is too good ;)

          • The MM is effectively a repetitive spambot.

            The spambots are less repetitive.

            Delimiter email notifications containing MM spam go directly into the trash, since the spambots are less frequent I’ll just delete them manually.

            Hope that answers your question Soth :-)

          • With respect to these comments:

            “I just made $6864 for posting this!”

            It is not a spambot.

            There is a dedicated team of real people posting these comments all over the web, probably using scripts to do so.

            They monitor Delimiter *very* carefully on a daily basis. As soon as I swat down one variant, a human modifies the text and posts something which gets around the filters.

            It’s the most amazing and expensive spam exercise I have ever seen on Delimiter … and I’ve seen a lot.

            I am engaged in a daily war with them, and I can tell you they are very definitely human. Because they are smart.

          • “Because they are smart.”

            I they really that smart if they remain in a minority in this community and seem to make no headway in changing people’s minds. As well as continually exposing the poverty of their argument?

          • “I am engaged in a daily war with them, and I can tell you they are very definitely human. Because they are smart.”

            Are you implying the repetitious LibTrolls aren’t? ;-)

          • I am engaged in a daily war with them, and I can tell you they are very definitely human.

            I feel your pain!

            Perhaps a vote system? (Sorry Ricky ;-))

          • I they really that smart if they remain in a minority in this community and seem to make no headway in changing people’s minds.

            At least they only post once per article, more that I can say for some.

      • “Considering that 84% are willingly choosing to connect at 25Mbps or slower I suspect it isn’t a significant issue.”
        The largest and most expensive infrastructure project this country has ever undertaken will ALWAYS be an issue.

      • Are they willingly choosing 25 Mbps or are they picking based on the download quota and price and it just so happens to be 25 Mbps? If you look at the marketing material, I’d suggest people are going for highest download amount for the price they are willing to pay. However u like the coalition plan, under the FTTP plan they have a choice to upgrade if they need it. Thats why its more future proof than the coalition policy.

        One thing labor could have done was worked out where people wanted the higher speeds and where takeup was going to be strongest and rolled out there first instead of the rollout politics both parties did to marginal seats. Everyone I know in Canberra with NBN went for the 100/40 service. It was also a blackspot and people with large amount of disposable income.

        • Nah it’s just Mathew is happy for the government to spend even more money later upgrading to catch up to the rest of the world

        • with dropbox,netflix,itunes,steam and all these services it makes sense that download quota is the first thing people look at . too easy to exceed a couple of hundred GB in 2016 if you are on 25Mbps

          • I can manage over 500 GB in a month with 12/1 mbps, if I had even 50/20, my productivity would improve dramatically even if my usage would remain about the same.

          • Which is why you remove speed tiers because these people will buy more quota helping to pay for the NBN.

            How much more Mat, do your plans balance out?

          • Which is why you remove speed tiers because these people will buy more quota helping to pay for the NBN.

            How much more Mat? You’ve costed this, right?

          • Mathew, where is that change.org petition to have NBN Co change to colume pricing?

            We’ve said we’ll sign it if you make it?

          • I tell you what let’s do away with elections, waste of time and money, let’s run the country including all legislation from Change.org.

          • The Swiss system is a long long way removed from a invite yourself stacked question site like change.org.

          • Not as different as you want it to be alain. Main difference is private v public setup, but thats it.

            The US also has a public petition system.

          • The Swiss system is a long long way removed from a invite yourself stacked question site like change.org.

            Our system is a long way removed you mean. The only time people here get a direct say is when there is a referendum, and politicians avoid that like the plague.

            Both major parties are losing support from the Australian people, mostly because they both listen more to vested interests and lobby groups more than their constituents.

            While I recognise you were just being “snarky” with the change.org comment you made, I think the major parties will need to start looking and listening to things like change.org (or something similar) a lot more, or become irrelevant.

          • Not as different as you want it to be alain. Main difference is private v public setup, but thats it.

            The US also has a public petition system.

            Yep.

            When you look into it, it’s surprising how few rights we actually have under our constitution, and we have no federal bill of rights at all…

        • > However u like the coalition plan, under the FTTP plan they have a choice to upgrade if they need it. Thats why its more future proof than the coalition policy.

          I’ve never said that I like the Coalition Plan what I have said based on evidence is that for a large portion (84%) on 25Mbps or slower that there is little difference between FTTP & FTTN.

          When you say need for many people you actually mean afford. Image if you use the same sentence about education or health.

          When Labor predict that less than 1% will have 1Gbps in 2026, I’m pretty sure that the same 1% will be able to afford fibre on demand. Have you seen that the South Australian Government is extending SABREnet because the NBN is too slow?

          • “for a large portion (84%) on 25Mbps or slower that there is little difference between FTTP & FTTN”

            But this is a completely unprovable falsehood…you can only show what it was months ago. The mix can change on a daily basis.
            You also cannot show that they “prefer” it, only that they have chosen it a few months ago for whatever reason. It could be financial, a lack of faith on it actually achieving those speed, ignorance, whatever…

            It is a consistently meaningless bit of spam…
            As meaningless as designating a worst case scenario as a “prediction”

          • I’ve never said that I like the Coalition Plan

            Of course not, You LOVE the LPA plan!!

          • “When Labor predict”

            Labor have made no predictions on plans…it is all in your mind.

          • Chas,

            But this is a completely unprovable falsehood…you can only show what it was months ago.

            Wrong, the speed tier selections by NBN users can be shown in NBN Co reports since 2013.

            The mix can change on a daily basis.

            It certainly can, of course what you deliberately failed to mention is that ‘change’ is more and more residences are moving off 100/40 to the lower speed tiers.

          • It certainly can, of course what you deliberately failed to mention is that ‘change’ is more and more residences are moving off 100/40 to the lower speed tiers.

            A lot of people have posted here that they’ve dropped down because they can’t get the speeds promised on the higher speed plans.

          • Indeed Tm…

            If you are unable to receive 50Mbps on obsolete copper, why would you pay for 50Mbps on, err, obsolete copper.

            It’s a bleedin’ obvious inconvenient truth for those who hate any kinds of truths…

          • Yes, because SA has predominantly been targeted for FTTN.

            That’s probably why the LPA are doing so poorly in the SA polls and why the X Team are picking all the disaffected Lib voters…

          • tinman_au,

            A lot of people have posted here that they’ve dropped down because they can’t get the speeds promised on the higher speed plans.

            …. on FTTP.

          • > A lot of people have posted here that they’ve dropped down because they can’t get the speeds promised on the higher speed plans.

            So some RSPs cannot deliver the full performance of a speed tiers simply don’t deliver as was clearly going to happen from day 1 why not eliminate speed tiers and stop the confusion.

            According to Nick Ross, speed is not important.
            https://twitter.com/NickRossTech/status/747644648177471488

          • …. on FTTP.

            Of course on FttP, it’s not like FttN is widespread, is it? ;o)

            What was the point you’re trying to make?

          • So some RSPs cannot deliver the full performance of a speed tiers simply don’t deliver as was clearly going to happen from day 1 why not eliminate speed tiers and stop the confusion.

            Just so I’m clear on what you want, you’re asking them to drop CVC and increase AVC, right? And then meter data?

            Any idea on the costs?

          • So Mathew you want people to pay more for speeds they can’t get?

            They wouldn’t necessarily have to pay more, a lot of smart people say it’s actually doable, I’m just curious if Mathew has actually run into any numbers on it in his internet travels.

            And I’d also assume that poor people under that system would have the same speeds as everyone else, they just wouldn’t be able to afford to download much without some sort of subsidy system.

          • Tinman
            I can understand your comment. As to Mathew ether everyone will be paying the 12/1 AVC or everyone would be paying more than that cost as it will be a lucky dip on speeds for his chosen tech.

            As for data people will always pay for what they think they will use.
            As for me I am only paying for the data cap my speed physically limits me too. But the system that Mathew wants is the same we currently have for ADSL where people on 1Mbps are paying the same price as people on 15Mbps

          • ” the speed tier selections by NBN users can be shown in NBN Co reports since 2013″

            Excellent…so please tell me exactly how many premises are connected this week to each speed tier. And then’ please quote for me the rule in statistics you are using to define the trend…along with the data point requirements for a statistically significant analysis.

            Matthew’s spams are quite worthless…they don’t mean anything and project nothing (which BTW is the reason for a statistical analysis in the first place). There is no form or branch of science that would accept his data as significant…

      • Listen, Matthew, let me tell you how it works. You don’t want to know this but anyway…

        I have FTTP internet activated. I’m on 25/5. I’lle xplain why. A few weeks ago I went with my folks into the Telstra business centre. We talked to a business centre guy. He had no interest – NONE – in telling us anything about internet speeds. I tried to ask him “what about the speeds” and he just said claptrap like “you will get twice what you have” or “we can’t guarantee speeds”. He was like a fortune cookie. Nor could I find any documentation or mention about speed or speed plans in any physical or online Telstra documentation. So we walked away with no idea what speed we were going to get.

        So 2 weeks later we activate our FTTP service and ookla says 25/5. What I am trying to say, Matthew, is that Telstra has one definition of success: it’s to get the customer, by fair means or foul, onto 25/5 because Telstra knows that it oversells bandwidth at 100/40 and makes more profit from 25/5. I’m telling you that as my real world experience. Not anecdote. Not gossip. What I saw and what i know.

        Thus the statistics about 25/5 take up that you mention are far more complex in their nuances and causes than what you seem to acknowledge. Will I stay at 25/5? I’m not sure. The irony is that as a power user I might not because I know that overselling and CVC issues make 100/40 unreliable. So why don’t I go to another ISP? I might. But right now I am looking at the Telstra gateway – do I have to give it back?

        • Tears of copper
          Mathew does know he using that to explain why his original 50% on 12Mbps argument doesn’t count anymore so had to change the goal post

        • So the right approach is build an expensive infrastructure project and then put restrictions on the speeds so that tomorrow it might be better.

          As you’ve correctly outlined the pricing structure created by Labor acts as a disincentive for RSPs to sell faster speeds and for NBNCo to run a congestion free network. No wonder our speeds are falling down the global rankings.

          • No Mathew
            We are building the expensive infrastructure as will cost even more to do right later.

            As you failed to under stand is that labor isn’t in any more that the coalition plan that you support (aka FTTN is faster than FTTP). Has build in speed teirs. But you want everyone either paying to same price doesn’t matter if they get 1gbps or 25mbps

          • “the pricing structure created by Labor”

            But approved and enforced by the Coalition…

          • So the right approach is build an expensive infrastructure project and then put restrictions on the speeds so that tomorrow it might be better.

            Why not?

            What’s the alternative? Let everyone go apeshit downloading GoT?

            Why not just allow folks to do legit stuff faster?

          • In Australia we have quotas. Those quotas will very quickly put a stop to people thrashing the network.

            You can budget for when you want to use the network, but you cannot budget for when you want fast / slow speed access with the current wholesale pricing.

          • You can budget for when you want to use the network, but you cannot budget for when you want fast / slow speed access with the current wholesale pricing.

            Sure, uncapped speed with quotas would work with FttP, but I’m not so sure about FttN, people will still be stuck with speed caps on that (though this time physical caps).

          • The story has been repeated at a least twice before, to at least one of those stories I outlined how easy it is to find about NBN speed increases to fixed line NBN from the Telstra website by adding extra cost options.

            The responses are ignored of course, the whole Telstra resell of the NBN nationwide is based on one persons story at one Telstra Business Centre and repeated over and over.

          • @alain,

            Yes your responses are largely ignored or laughed at, simply because you make little (if any) sense, continually go the childish/argumentative avenue and forever contradict the previous positions you had when FTTP was being rolled out to 93%.

            For example…

            Tell us again, as you used to regularly, that ADSL is good enough now and into the future so MTM is not needed, as you used to with FTTP (after all it’s perhaps actually somewhat pertinent now).

            Tell us also that you do not want to be forced onto the MTM monopoly …as you used to with FTTP.

            Then tell us now, as you did previously, that HFC is only good for the possums to run up and pigeons to perch upon, instead of strangely now saying the opposite and lauding HFC.

            Tell us that when Morrow revised his estimations, that this was mismanagement and a clear pre-election lie by the government just as you did with Quigley and the last mob. Instead of not only accepting but using these revisions to excuse the complete and utter MTM debacle…

            GO

            See why you are ignored?

            Need I continue?

            I thought not.

            Apology accepted/you’re welcome.

          • Yes your responses are largely ignored or laughed at, simply because you make little (if any) sense

            Give him a bit of credit Rizz, remember he did come up with some amazing insights like “Before roads there were no roads” ;-)

          • tinman_au,

            You also see a lot of complaints about the NBN on the https://crowdsupport.telstra.com.au site, so it’s not just an isolated incident…

            You see complaints about all BB infrastructure types, NBN, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone mobile and different ISP’s speed performance, some more than others.

            yep I understand the bleeding obvious.

          • yep I understand the bleeding obvious.

            Oh, good, so all the times you do miss the bleeding obvious, you’re doing it intentionally?

            Glad we got that cleared up at least…

  4. The really scary thing about this article? That’s John Howard’s actual skin tone…

  5. to think I used to have time for Turnbull (~2009-2011) , if he says “Innovation” again without describing WTF he is talking about I will vomit blood

  6. Why aren’t Labor making the fiscal argument? Even Quigley has demonstrated that the MTM is wasting tens of billions. This whole ‘buffering’ nonsense just makes them look like they’re only slightly less clueless than the LNP. I’m not saying it isn’t an issue that people will recognise, but to keep hearing that hammered as if it’s the only concern fails to draw attention to the facts people might actually care about if they don’t already – the MTM is costing upwards of $50bn more than the FTTP NBN would have, it will cost billions more per year, it can’t be profitable and thus will be sold off (almost certainly to Telstra) at the first opportunity, for a fraction of its construction cost. The reality of an LNP vote is that it may cement this infrastructure travesty indefinitely, unable to be fixed for decades, if ever. Just by voting them in for one term. It blows the budget wide open, it is nothing more than theft from the public purse.

    People care about the economy? The LNP are actively undermining the economy, doing monumental damage every day, killing off in Australia what are the two fastest growing sectors globally (high tech (computing and software) and renewable energy). *That’s* where Australia’s future prosperity lies, and the Liberals are putting that further out of reach with each passing day. A vote for them this week may, quite literally, ruin Australia’s future.

  7. Just as a side note…

    Has anyone else had a giggle at the irony of Malcolm Turnbull having a monochrome photo taken with John Howard?

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