Joint media release.

Senator the Hon Penny Wong
Minister for Finance and Deregulation

Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Leader of the Government in the Senate
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity

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Coalition $90 billion broadband claims shredded

The assumptions underpinning the Coalition’s costing of Labor’s NBN have today been torn to shreds at the Joint Committee for the National Broadband Network.
“The robustness of NBN Co’s Corporate Plan, which the Government had independently verified by KPMG and Greenhill Caliburn, has been reaffirmed again today,” the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Penny Wong, said.
“Mike Quigley, CEO of NBN Co, has demonstrated that the NBN Co Corporate Plan is sound and that the Coalition assumptions about the cost of the project are wrong.”
The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, said: “In evidence given to the committee, Mr Quigley demonstrated that:

• The actual cost of building the NBN to each home and business is between $2,200-2,500 per premise, not $3,600 per premise as claimed in Mr Turnbull’s policy document.
• NBN wholesale prices will fall in real terms, not triple as claimed in Mr Turnbull’s policy document.
• The NBN remains on track to be completed by 2021, not 2025 as claimed in Mr Turnbull’s policy document.
  “This evidence proves that the assumptions underpinning the Coalition’s costing of Labor’s NBN are a fraud.

“If Mr Turnbull had any credibility at all, he would admit that he has based his costing on a lie.
“He should also immediately stop misleading the public about the prices people pay for the NBN now and what people will pay in the future.
“If he doesn’t, it’s just another sign that Mr Turnbull will say anything to hide the fact that his plan would leave Australia with the broadband equivalent of the Sydney Harbour Bridge with only one lane.”