The Conversation Yearbook 2016 by John Watson

Author:John Watson [Watson, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Reference, Yearbooks & Annuals, Commentary & Opinion, Political Science
ISBN: 9780522871074
Google: PU1WvgAACAAJ
Goodreads: 33154754
Publisher: Melbourne University Press
Published: 2016-11-15T07:46:25+00:00

FactCheck: has the NBN been delayed?

Rod Tucker

Laureate Emeritus Professor, University of Melbourne

Reviewer,Thas Ampalavanapillai Nirmalathas,

Director of Melbourne Networked Society Institute, Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Co-Founder/Academic Director of Melbourne Accelerator Program, University of Melbourne

And there has not been a delay of the NBN … Because of Malcolm Turnbull’s management of the NBN, it will all be finished by 2020, not 2024 as Labor was promising, with speeds that people want and need.’—Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Christopher Pyne, speaking on Q&A, May 23, 2016.

The election campaign has brought the national broadband network (NBN) policy back into the spotlight, particularly as the incumbent prime minister was responsible for the NBN in his previous role as communications minister.

Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Christopher Pyne told Q&A there has not been a delay of the NBN. Is that right?

2013: the year of election promises and reviews

The Conversation contacted a spokesperson for Christopher Pyne seeking comment and sources to support his statement, but did not hear back before deadline.

Nevertheless, most of the documents on the recent history of the NBN can be found online.

As acknowledged in a 2013 Coalition policy document, the previous Labor government promised to deliver an NBN by a deadline of 2021 (not 2024 as Pyne stated on Q&A).

Prior to the 2013 federal election, the nbn co under the then Labor government said it planned to deliver a predominantly fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network by 2021.

But there were delays in negotiating with Telstra for access to ducts and pits, the discovery of asbestos in some of Telstra’s network and other teething problems.

In its 2013 pre-election promises, the Coalition said its goal was to provide everyone in the nation with access to broadband with download data rates of between 25 and 100 megabits per second by 2016. The Coalition also planned to deliver between 50 and 100 megabits per second to 90% of the fixed-line footprint by the end of 2019. That election commitment, the Coalition said, ‘assumes the current nbn co satellite and fixed wireless networks are deployed on schedule’.

But after the election, the Coalition dropped its promise to deliver 25 to 100 megabits per second to everyone in the nation by 2016.

Then communications minister Malcolm Turnbull said that a December 2013 Strategic Review of the NBN commissioned by the new government had found that:

the NBN is in a fundamentally worse position than the Labor Government at any time disclosed to Parliament or the Australian public.

The strategic review also said that Labor’s NBN would not have been completed until 2024.

2015: New plans

In 2015, nbn co issued its 2016 corporate plan.

In this document, the company now estimated that Labor’s plan for

an all-FTTP fixed-line rollout could be completed by 2026 but possibly as late as 2028.

However, former nbn co CEO Mike Quigley has challenged this revised estimate. In a 2015 article, he wrote:

For that to be correct, one has to assume that, for the next 13 years, nbn co will roll out just 12,300 premises per week on average. Fewer premises than it regularly passes each week today.

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