Ziggy Switkowski said his comments were ‘not to criticise you or the then government, but to point out how hard this is’. Picture: Smith Kym Source: News Corp Australia
ALMOST $7 billion of government funds have been ploughed into the National Broadband Network to complete just 3 per cent of the rollout and NBN Co’s much-vaunted “Gigabit Nation” service does not have a single end-user customer.
NBN Co made the revelation about the turbocharged one-gigabit service during Senate estimates hearings yesterday, which Labor’s former communications minister Stephen Conroy had boasted would help drive productivity growth and create the jobs of the future.
It also emerged there was only one end customer on NBN Co’s 250 megabits-per-second service - which is one quarter of the speed of the gigabit service - in a fillip to the Coalition’s model of a cheaper, slower NBN.
While Labor had planned to provide super-fast optic fibre to the premises of 93 per cent of Australian homes, the Coalition is favouring fibre-to-the-node and will use Telstra’s existing copper network for the final few hundred metres to homes.
NBN Co executive chairman Ziggy Switkowski told Senate estimates that it “really is hard in any practical sense to describe the activities of a family even with hyperactive teenagers that would get anywhere near 100 megabits per second any time soon”.
NBN Co had promised the 1Gb service during the Labor era, with the product to be started last December.
Enterprises doing special effects in 3D movies in support of Hollywood studios were the kinds of small businesses that might find speeds of hundreds of megabits per second useful, he added. “They would need that kind of bandwidth and usually have options for getting it, not waiting for NBN to provide a reticulated retail network to do it,” he said.
Dr Switkowski’s comments came as the political row over the NBN escalated.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull told question time that the NBN fibre build was proceeding “faster than ever” since the election. The number of active fibre premises had nearly doubled to 95,000, total fibre premises passed had increased by 120,000 and serviceable brownfield premises were up by 74,000.
Mr Turnbull seized on the fiery nature of yesterday’s estimates hearings, which were adjourned temporarily after Senator Conroy accused Dr Switkowski of lying, to accuse his ministerial predecessor of waging a “solitary war of denial continuing to claim that the project was in perfect shape when he left office”.
“This is all the more puzzling because Senator Conroy is the shadow defence minister,” Mr Turnbull told parliament.
“But there is a connection - tenuous, I grant you - between Senator Conroy’s denialism and the military, because he has become the Lieutenant Onoda of the Australian parliament - the Japanese officer who, refusing to accept that the war had ended, fought on in the jungles of The Philippines for 28 years after the end of hostilities. When Lieutenant Onoda finally surrendered, he still had his sword, his rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition. Will it be 28 years before Senator Conroy too, clutching his dog-eared bundle of reckless forecasts, finally surrenders to the truth: that he presided over the most wasteful infrastructure debacle in our history?”
During yesterday’s Senate estimates hearings, Dr Switzkowski and senior executives confirmed: NBN Co would not seek private debt funding within the next two years; the proposal by Tasmania’s Aurora to string fibre along power poles would be trialled; and NBN Co would meet its revised target of 357,000 premises by June 30.
Dr Switzkowski said he was working with NBN Co partners to deal with the problem of the high number of premises that could not connect to the NBN because of a previous focus on “premises passed”. This was a key dispute between Senator Conroy and Dr Switzkowski.
Senator Conroy said NBN Co had now set rollout targets as low as “a pencil on the floor” for political purposes. Dr Switkowski replied that whether the NBN was passing “5000 homes a week at the moment, 4000 or 6000” was immaterial to judgments about to what was going to happen by the end of the decade.
At one point, Dr Switkowski said: “The total government investment, or the total investment, so far into NBN Co approaches $7bn for 3 per cent of the build. If you extrapolate that by a factor of 30, you get $210bn. Is that a sensible thing to do?”
Senator Conroy objected. “It would be dishonest for anybody to sit there and say the capex cost of the transit network can be divided into the number of connections - that would be seriously dishonest,” he said.
“To talk about $7bn of which a couple of billion is the transit network to make every single home in the country work is just a dishonest representation.”
Dr Switkowski said his comments were “not to criticise you or the then government, but to point out how hard this is”.
Senator Conroy said the NBN build started in 2009 at trial sites and the “volume” rollout started in 2011. “Just so you know in the future, any time that you try and pretend that we’ve done 3 per cent in five years, you are misleading Australians,” he said.
According to NBN Co’s latest financial report, issued on Friday, the government had tipped $6.48bn of equity into NBN Co by December 31. This month, NBN Co received a further $270 million in commonwealth equity funding.
Last Friday, Dr Switkowski pointed to the 3 per cent figure. He also used it in handing down the strategic review in December. The NBN has passed 305,000 brownfield premises - about 3 per cent of the estimated 10 million premises in the fixed-line footprint.
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Why don't we express $7 billion in the language the man in the street can understand. Isn't it really $7000 million.
A 10% tax reduction and a little federal coordination through license issuing to the private sector and they would have built a more cost effective and efficient system than the NBN. It would have cost the taxpayer about $2.3 billion in tax discounts and would have created 18,000 new jobs permanently in the major telco's and would be scheduled for completion in 2015. Unfortunately Labor were voted into power in 2007 and it was all downhill from there.
Put NBN on hold and spend the money to build dams then continue it later when Australia's financial position improve.
@Emiliano What a great idea Emiliano, we only use 6% of the water available to us, the rest goes out to sea. We desperately need to build dams, despite the blue tipped butterfly, or other creatures found conveniently, at sites picked for dams. No dams built for 20 years thanks to the NIMBYS and the Greens, and yet our population grows. If we want to be Asia's food bowl, then we MUST build dams, and as soon as possible.
The sad part is that a massive chunk of that 7billion has found its way into the CFMEU and a few other Labor militant union coffers. And of course, as long strategised by Labor and their unions, that money would be applied to influence the gullible voters to get Labor back into power so they can continue the gigantic waste on the NBN and other ideologically driven non-analysed wasteful "projects". Such is the intent of the Labor party to destroy the joint whilst they personally enjoy the spoils of power. Rudd, Gillard and Conroy are classical examples of such attitude and intent.
Conroy..... obviously suffering from Lack of relevance, has only a short time to wait before the royal commission comes calling. Hopefully the Labor Union Rep will have his blatant Arrogance Put in check once and for all.
In my opinion, he has been one of the worst performing Ministers ever....Wasting Billions.
Earning him a place in the worst Government Australia has ever had to endure.
Then Again he is up against many rivals....
Rudd/Gillard/shorten/Albanese/Pliberserk/Bowen/Karr/Cameron/Wong.....just to name a few.
The list is long. The Bill HUGE ! Their legacy a national disaster !!
Conroy's failure is huge, no wonder he's lashing out at the Army. if we apply this figure to the full rollout of "Labours" waste it would cost 210 billion thats 400% more than the BS Labour estimate. No wonder Labours left us with a 500 billion dollar debt and that excludes the NBN cost due to their accounting trickery. Why do we have so many ex unionists in the Labour Party? Jobs for the.....?
As for the NBN - great result for lLabor in costing $7Billion for one connection! Meanwhile as Conroy denies reality its becoming clear that he has botched the entire NBN program and brought further discredit on Labor; this especially in light of the fact that he and Albo had a report on their desk prior to the election outlining cost overruns and failure to meet connection targets - Did they release this report ? They dishonestly did not!
Stephen Conroy is Shadow the defence minister so what chance, if by some unfortunate circumstance Labor got back into power, that he could work harmoniously with the Defence department? The only reason one could come up for his bizarre attack on Houston is that Conroy (like the rest of us including Labor MPs) have come to the conclusion that he will be retired before Labor gets another chance,,,
No wonder we have plunged into enormous debt. Surely Australians will not vote this incompetent, money wasting rabble back into office any time soon.
It's the classic "free lunch myth". That myth that the government can provide services at no cost, and that people can live at eveyone else's expense. Regrettably too many people want it all. They want government to provide everything they personally want at no direct personal cost, they want low taxes and they want no debt. It's only when a major crises emerges that these same people reluctantly accept the necessary short term pain. In the absence of a major crisis they will support any party that promises the illusion of government services at no cost.
@Wendy The thing that worries me Wendy, is that so many people still think that Rudd and Gillard did a great job. I suppose that is a characteristic of democracy where only a portion of the people really study what the different parties have to offer or how they perform. The rest are rusted-ons, or apathetic, or just hear the headlines of biased commentaries. You only have to look at the current polls
Conroy is a disgrace. For his NBN and Operations Sovereign Borders performances yesterday, Labor should hang its collective head in shame.
The seven billion wasted would have payed for a pipeline from Lake Argyle to Adelaide, opening up the interior. At a cost of $3056.00 per meter
Conroy was the best asset the LNP had in opposition and now as he remerges from under the rock he has been hiding will be their advantage as focus goes back on Labor waste, incompetence and arrogance. How could Shorten have the lightning rod that encapsulates the ongoing leadership debacle, the waste, the hubris and sense of entitlement that was the last shambolic policy on the run Labor Government.
Tony Abbott must be very thankful Stephen Conroy once more has made his life that so much easier.
The NBN was never designed to work, only to provide highly paid jobs to ALP and union hacks like Mike Kaiser. I wonder if he still has his $450,000 per year salary. Mind you, that was only his starting salary. Not bad for a criminal. You have to be pretty bad to lose your job as a pollie in the ALP, ask Craig Thomson.
What a disgrace! $7 billion for an insignificant 3%! As it was pointed out, this extrapolates to $210 BILLION and that does not even take into account the cost blow-outs that will inevitably come. It would be no surprise to find out that the end cost is around $300 billion.
For $300 billion we could have a high speed rail network linking Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane (and major centres in between), a second Sydney airport, fast freight rail corridors, expanded and upgraded transport systems in our major cities, new irrigation and agriculture initiatives, our biggest ever tourism marketing program, a new fleet of aircraft for Qantas etc, etc. All of that would deliver massive improvements in our productivity as a nation and create lots and lots of jobs.
If private enterprise was to build the NBN then we could have all of the projects I mentioned and a fast-track rollout of the NBN - wow, where is the rocket science in this?
@david proble with your point is even the current government have revised what they thought the total ALP NBN cost would be from $90 billion pre-election to $55 billion. Obviously there are some start up costs that inflate the current figure, however great work in in your extrapolation, never let some independent thought get in the way of a good rant.
Your 2nd point is exactly right, private companies would not have built it, particularly in remote and regional areas. Private companies need to make a profit for their shareholders, government just needs to make their money back. You can argue they will/will not get their money back, but the point is to get this infrastructure government needs to build it. Who do you think originally built the existing copper network? Telecom? government company? if we had have left that to a private company there would still be large parts of the country who wouldn't have Home phone connection. Why do you think Telstra's network is bigger then Optus's and Vodafone?
I find it funny that people argue against the spending $55 billion on the NBN (most of which will be recouped) which will benefit all 23 million Australians, yet we are happy to spend $19 billion for a 2 lane tunnel for the West Connect in Sydney with will benefit maybe a million people. Governments spend money on roads, rail etc to improve productivity, well internet is 21st equivalent. People obviously don't realize how the new economy will work or in particular how our largely service based employment base need to compete on a world stage. I can't even video conference at work with our super fast ADSL 2 connection.
@david, not sure where you are looking, but all major players, Telstra, Optus, iiNet, don't charge a different price for their NBN connections. You can pay more if you want a faster speed, but the basic price is the same as if you are purchasing an ADSL connection.
I'm glad you can speak for all Australian business's about what they need for an internet connection, but I really doubt you have the authority to speak for many, if any.
Another analogy for the doubters, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built in the 30's, little known fact - its still the widest Bridge in the world with 8 car lanes and 2 train lines, could the government of the time saved money and built a smaller bridge? was 8 car lanes needed in the 30's? Fortunately the government had some forethought and vision, maybe thats whats needed now, just a thought.
@Matthew @david you're right Matthew, the major players don't charge differently for NBN but the NBN charge is not the same value for his money that David gets now. I am of the same opinion.
And something else that no one seems to mention about the NBN is even those in the community with no need of internet services will be required to have a new telephone with battery backup as power to the landline phone doesn't come thru fibre. So let's just add more power costs to the elderly, the disabled and those with the least means to pay for it.
Fibre to the node and if you want to tie yourself to one location (instead of wireless) you pay for it.
@Matthew @david You make a number of good points, Matthew, in response to David. We need good internet services and that should hopefully take pressure off other infrastructure such as roads. But, how good, and at what cost? Those are the questions that we are continually arguing about answering. The bottom line is that with other internet infrastructure options, including those which are in development now, maybe we don't need to spend $55billion.
Fibre to the node with a VDSL extension into the premises has existed in Australia for well over 10 years now and whilst the equipment is now a little dated it has worked extremely well. It's called the Transact Network here in Canberra and given limited funds it was still rolled out on a greenfield site in record time. Senator Conroy was appraised of this and the benefits of fibre to the node not least by myself and I suspect others also ... but then he and Labor just wanted to cling to the fantasy of expensive fixed infrastructure that would not truly deliver on the productivity gains he had espoused. As some other commentators have noted, Wireless access has delivered some real productivity gains for some small business enterprises (e.g. mobile tradesmen) and so I believe Malcolm T is right to push for (and fund) a multifaceted infrastructure approach. Such an approach provides business and the individual the flexibility to change as technology and services change over time.
The NBN, the love child of Conroy and Rudd, this one has to be the largest and most expensive of all Labor Thought Bubbles, and possibly the most ridiculous. Who can forget the Independent, Windsor, pushing a button (that was not attached to anything) to start up the NBN in his electorate. They are still waiting.
Former communications minister, now Shadow Defence minister conroy is getting a bit of air time lately. Pity none of it is really positive. Ahh, there is nothing like the smell of glacial desperation so early in the morning, yes? lol :o)
You have to wonder if a Govt should made more accountable when in office simply because of the liars that Labor told the people about the N B N for votes.It would appear that Labor had no control over this project.Now you would have to ask if it should continue.It is not hard to word out that the cost could be over $200 billion dollars plus if and when it ever gets finished along with the interest payment. $7 billion for only 3% is no much bang for your buck.There are big question as to the ability of both Rudd along with Conroy. You almost have to ask yourself should the N B N taken to the dump. Wireless is the way of the future for many users.
Conroy was (maybe still is) a UN Broadband Commissioner and even though the United Nations is well passed its use-by-date it still strives for World Governance and what better way to do it then install a global spy network.
We in the industry knew this would happen in 09, to me this is the least surprising of Labor's failures. In 3 years time wireless will surpass it for the vast majority. A good example of the futility of this project is in home phones. How many people actually have one connected? What is it, 60% of internet traffic that now uses a wireless device?
Another Conroy stuff up exposed. What a surprise. How does this guy hold onto his job? Then again I guess he does belong to the party that for so long supported the former member for Dobell!
The NBN under Labor had connected to 150,000 houses and "passed" 300,000 in a five year period. Given their target was to connect to 7.2 million houses their rollout speeds were horrendously slow. If we are generous and go on the "passed" figure rather than the connected figure that gives us a rate of "passing" around 60,000 houses a year which leaves us with another 111 years before the remaining 6.9 million houses are passed/connected. I would also point out our world ranking in regards to internet speeds dropped under the six years of the Labor government even though it was a major priority and a truckload of government money was thrown at it.
And Conroy is the Shadow Defence Minister? How bereft is Labor of any talent that they appoint this fool to a ministerial position
It was the will of the people in 1996, and at each election he contested since then. Australia is lucky the 2013 election removed him from doing any more damage. I do not believe he is the Onoda of Parliament, but he is certainly the comedy act of the Senate.
@fred And he, of all people, saw fit to abuse a serving Army Officer yesterday, for no other reason than he is outraged, like his other ilk, that Abbott's plan is working.
The NBN has never made either operational or economic sense, it is a total a total disaster. It is Conroy who should be in the dock not Switzkowski, who has to fix this diabolical mess. What we have here is Bernie Madoff questioning the judge, its a joke. Quite frankly i think those being questioned need to blatantly tell conroy to get lost.
Well may Turnbull ask whether it will take Conrod 28 years before Senator Conroy surrenders to the truth: that he presided over the most wasteful infrastructure debacle in our history, but how long will it take Turnbull to realise that it is now HE who is presiding over this monumental waste of taxpayer's money?
Why is he continuing with Labor's folly?
There are no justifications for taxpayer's money being spent on the provision of communications infrastructure. If people where willing to pay what it costs to provide this service, the market will deliver. If they aren't willing to pay, there is no justification for taking the money off them through taxation to pay for it.
The NBN is no longer Labor's folly. It is Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull's folly. They should desist in this folly.
@Rick Philosophically, I have to agree with you, Rick – especially when I see the great job that a very competitive private sector has already done in Canada. High-speed, unlimited-data Internet has already existed for years – even in the type of remote and mountainous areas that are unlikely to be serviced in Australia for a considerable time to come.
In Australia, however, Labor and the unions had already sold the voters an "NBN monopoly pup” and it’s to LNP’s credit that they’ve had the foresight and guts to do some cost and time-saving with a FTN model and let FTP evolve as funds, better planning and new technology allow.
In Australia, however, Labor and the unions had already sold the voters an "NBN monopoly pup” and it’s to LNP’s credit that they’ve had the foresight and guts to do some cost and time-saving with a FTN model and let FTP evolve as funds, better planning and new technology allow.
@Edward @Rick I agree about the monopoly bit, but from a practical political point of view, would the opposition have been able to take over from Labor if they went to the elction saying they would scrap the NBN? Labor has IMHO done too effective a brainwashing job on the masses. Turnbull and the Dr have to work with the hand they have been dealt.
@Rick Because the liberals would not have won the election had they promised to scrap the NBN. Our fellow voters are unfortunately not savvy enough to have understood that the NBN was always going to be a white elephant.
@Rick Whats the lesser of two evils?...deliver on election promises so the libs stay in power or have labor promise the world at any cost and never lose power? Labor uses the national credit card like craig thompson used the HSU Card. The Result is pork barrelling like the NBN.
And in news just in the age of entitlement is over. Unless of course you are an airline with revenue of $20 Bn, a multinational confectionery manufacturer, a property investor who relies on negative gearing, keen to have a $75,000 funded 6 month break from work after giving birth or someone who salary packages their personal vehicle (to name but a few).
The first thing to say is, the ALP 93 % is the first semantic lie used. The NBN for regional users will be almost all wireless, so the 93% of the nation on 1GB cabling is a lie. But this is what politicians do they lie. It is all downhill from there. The NBN was always a vehicle for providing young labor voters with fast home computers in major cities, the cost was ignored. Classic ALP. Who cares what the cost is if votes are at stake. The cost of rolling out fibre was looked at by Telstra and decided that it was not viable at any price. That is why Rudd and his henchmen decided the ALP government would ram it threw. Initially the coalition campaigned on stopping the NBN if they got to office. But those votes could not be ignored. Fibre rollout around the coast will continue until the major cities are connected, after that the cost will be shown as prohibitive and the rollout will be user pays. Businesses will pay. The coalition cannot afford spending 100's of Billions on Labor voters. 3% in three years, forget the longevity, NBN will not last ten years, let alone 30.
If I ever get round to designing that chook pen I definitely won't be calling on the services of Messrs Rudd and Conroy.
The NBN always was a folly... I work in the industry and I could never understand why mums and dads would need 100mb any time soon. 100mb wireless sill be invented, designed and rolled out for a fraction of the cost and long before most people will see fibre in their street. Utter waste.
The whole concept of the NBN in both, Labor and Coalition visions, is a total failure. The future belongs to mobile computing. Ubiquitous Computing. Computing everywhere. Whatever you want to name it but not connections that require you to be at home to use them. In five years you will be using internet connections in your car with voice recognition. You will be surfing the net chatting with your on board computer that will be GPS and telephone too. As long your car computer does not become the infamous HAL you will love it. Or you will be using your tablet in the train with a wi-fi connection 10 times more powerful than the dongles we are using today. And guess what, some security concerns are being currently addressed and you may soon use them in an aircraft. Turnbull is maintaining some kind of NBN project only for political reasons because he has to know, as many of us currently know, what is running already in several labs around the world. To he pay a visit to South Korea would be well expend money.
Above it was only about technology and consumer behavior. Now let's talk economics. I challenge Turnbull and Conroy to find only one infrastructure technology project with a pay off of more than 18 or 24 months at the most approved for a company. With the NBN we are talking about 12 years to brake even IF thing are within the original budget that we know will not be even close even running the fiber only to the node. Easy to do with tax payers money something that would be impossible to do with share holders money.
@Oscar A surprisingly large number of us actually work all day in our offices as do our staff. We run our enterprises on secure computers linked to servers and are not about to run the risk of having our systems hacked. I spent nearly half a century designing and installing accounting systems for SME's and I do not think you can run any of them securely with any degree of confidence from your car. There is just too much at stake.
@horse2go @Oscar Dear horse2go, thousands or better say millions of people are currently working from home. They connect to the company computers through a key that provides security. Much better security than the one provided normally by any installation. How you connect to the Internet to access the company intranet, with a wi-fi dongle or with a cable modem or with a network device installed in your car is making no difference in term of security. The security is in the key that allows you to access the company Intranet. Actually, I believe the wi-fi will be more difficult to hack than the NBN installation. During the last 7 or 8 years I have contracted with 4 different companies. Three of them have most of the people working from home. Two of them are large IT service providers. With my 4G Telstra device I even attended company meetings in a train heading to Newcattle from Sydney. Today there are people living and working from a yacht. People in Brazil is running Data Centers located in the US, people in Argentina is running Data Centers located in Spain and they are all working from home. More and more people are working across states without reallocating because they are working from home. People is doing work in other countries working from home what in the long run will be another nightmare for the immigration legislation but this is another subject.
I have also worked almost half a century and my field is IT Infrastructure and if there is something I have learned in my long working life is that the world is not the same to what it was half a century ago neither will be the same in 15 years from now. The most absurd thing said by Mr Conroy was that he was building a network not for today but for the century. In technology nothing last more than 5 years.
The bottom line is, you like it or not, HAL is coming. It is unstoppable.
@William @horse2go @Oscar Relax William. You are not missing out. As neither are missing out the flight attendants that take you CC to pay for food in the middle of the trip. By the way, yes, I forgot the cloud. With everything in the cloud HAL in the car will be happy.
@William @horse2go @Oscar "and we're yet to be hacked". How would you know William. For a successful hacker with a desire to use your information, as opposed top the trolls that are intent on disrupting users, concealing a successful infiltration would be a priority. Companies who wish to ensure confidentiality of information should have stand alone systems with RF disabled. That cannot stop dirtbags like Snowden from physically copying material but it mitigates electronic espionage.
And what about the grubby deal with the TV stations in particular channel 7 a few Hundred Million to side with Labor and the Greens I suspect.
Don't worry about it.....it's only a couple of hundred Billion until it's finished. All the students, game players and unemployed that want it so much can pay it off, and their kids, and their kids! I'll just stick to my 2Mb Wifi, but of course I can not download HD 5 movies at once, but only one. The obvious problem was putting Conroy in charge...he's never ever had a job other being in the Union and politics...but I'm sure he's delivered some pizzas at some point in time.
@Michael so it was cold,arrived next door and he delivered chinese. Whats that mr conroy..How much?
@Dave @Michael - Humour! -I loved the above pizza delivery conversation. It reminded me of a whole month years ago when I tried to deliver bread door-to-door from a van. If I'd had a horse and cart instead, at least the horse would have known the way and might have deterred some local dogs in the process.
A project conceived on the back of a napkin by the collective genius of Kevin Rudd and Stephen Conroy with no cost benefit analysis undertaken. The outcome - surprise, surprise $7 billion spent and sweet beggar all to show for it. This is the sort of economic ineptitude that has been all to common under the former Labor/Greens administration. We are well shot of them.
How Conroy can sit there and abuse those cleaning up his mess is beyond me. The man needs to move on before he does any more damage. HIs efforts in trying to make others look bad in order to make himself look good are backfiring at a rate of knots.
For a Senator who "In June 2009 he was named "Internet villain of the year" at the 11th annual Internet industry awards in the UK," he still holds power in the Labor movement.
The voters will have a responsibility to "right a wrong", at the next Senate election that Conroy contests.
@Maggie Conroy's behaviour brings to mind the drunk in the emergency ward abusing the doctors and nursing staff.
Congrats to Ziggy,Kowtowing to his new masters.As seen by this report its aimed at slighting the last gov.His manipulation of figures in justifying this attack coupled with Turnbulls use "Tenuous" to attack Conroy smacks of complete hypocrisy and political point scoring.What is evident we will end up with a mismated system that will surely need upgrading in the not too distant future.
@Alan read the article again & try to understand what was said & not put your own story to it. Switkowski was trying to be honest & show the true financial facts without laying blame. its conroy who is out of control biased, vindictive, unrealistic & rude.
Interesting that you defend Conroy here Alan and defend him for his outrageous outburst towards one of this country's finest military officers. To take a line straight from Conroy, it looks like both he and you can't handle the truth
Switkowskiis is trying to be objective & talk about the real world the NBN is in while Conroy is so angry that his baby was a total failure that all we have ended up with is denial & a walk around the truth. We really need a totally independent expert from outside of Australia who can tell us whether or not the NBN rollout under Labor was a good thing or not & then they need to tell us how Turnbull & Switkowski are doing with the take over. How Conroy could ever be part of this senate committee is beyond me as his bias is obvious & he is being totally destructive & obstructive towards any rational debate. He must be sacked & have no part in any senate enquiry ever again. I am ex Telstra communication installer who understands what's going on & this is a total farce.
Senator Conroy should stick to stacking branches. Over the years I have seen him grant detailed interviews on TV making all manner of promises none of which are likely to be fulfilled. Events have finally overtaken him. I am sure that Mr Turnbull and Dr Switkowski know what they are doing and if ever we have a NBN that it will work as intended at the best possible cost. Of course technical journals are full of commentary by know all tech heads on this and that specification and preference based on Mr Conroy's plan for the NBN. Like the Senator none of them have yet come forward with any form of cost or design analysis and if they were that smart we would not be where we are today. The ability to create infrastructure on this scale is given to few and we can be sure that Senator Conroy is not one of them. Time and opportunity have been wasted on his watch and unfortunately he cannot be held accountable.
"Senator Conroy said the NBN build started in 2009 at trial sites and the “volume” rollout started in 2011. “Just so you know in the future, any time that you try and pretend that we’ve done 3 per cent in five years, you are misleading Australians,” he said."
So 3% in three years, then. Wow, it should be finished any day now.
Philip: Even wireless needs a backbone admittedly (i.e. cables running to each wireless station).
