Federal Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Christopher Pyne has appeared alongside the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Anthony Albanese on ABC program Q&A, defending the Coalition government’s nbn rollout plans.
After an audience member asked Mr Pyne if the Coalition regrets not pursuing Labors original plans for the nbn rollout, Mr Pyne said, “Absolutely not, and there has not been a delay of the NBN.
“If Labor was still in power the NBN would not be delivered for four years longer than what it would be under Malcolm Turnbull’s management,” Mr Pyne said.
“When we took office in 2013, there were 55,000 customers of the nbn, there are now 955,000.”
Mr Pyne said the rollout will be finished by 2020 and cost $30billion less than Labour’s plans.
“They didn’t need the speeds that Labour was promising and it was costing an absolute bomb.”
Mr Pyne said that under the Coalition’s NBN plans, Australians will be able to watch five full length movies in the same household at the same time.
Mr Albanese responded by saying “the NBN isn’t about movies, it’s about our economy and how it functions”.
Mr Albanese hit back at the Coalitions rollout plans, implying the technology is outdated.
“In the 21st Century, surely we can do better than what the government has had to do is go out there and purchase 1.8 million meters of copper – this is 19th century stuff,” Mr Albanese said.
