Malcolm Turnbull says the NBN was a mistake and may never make...

Malcolm Turnbull says the NBN was a mistake and may never make money


On Monday, ahead of a Four Corners report into the delivery of the network, Mr Turnbull was asked at a press conference in Canberra if "in hindsight, the project was a mistake" and a "massive waste of money".

"Yes," Mr Turnbull responded.

"Well, it was a mistake to go about it the way they [Labor] did; setting up a new government company to do it was a big mistake. If you want to look at a country that did this exercise better, it's New Zealand, and what they did there was ensure the incumbent telco, the Telstra equivalent, split network operations from retail operations and that network company became, in effect, the NBN," he said.

He said, however, that there were no plans for a levy on mobile connections as the NBN had a competitive advantage over mobile because of its ability to deliver huge amounts of data.

"At the moment, it is estimated to deliver a return of around 3 per cent, which is not - it is enough to keep it on the government's balance sheet, as a government asset, but it certainly is not a commercial return that the stock market would expect. It was supposed to be 6 per cent," he said.

When he became communications minister, Mr Turnbull helped lead the switch away from the faster but more expensive Labor plan to roll out fibre to the home. Instead, the company switched to fibre to node, which leaves users relying on old copper wires for the final connection to their home - which has the effect of slowing the speeds available.


http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...and-may-never-make-money-20171022-gz63yo.html