Waleed Aly talks about mediocre NBN, page-17

The up-front costs were to be paid primarily through government bonds, issued at historically low interest rates below 4%. These would have been paid over time from wholesale fees, and over the long term the net profit for the country would have been immense.

It's a weird thing. Here we are on a share-trading site, and a substantial proportion of contributors don't seem to understand the concept of "investment".