It has been 6 months since the coalition has inherited the rolling train wreck that is the NBN. Labor's staggering incompetence and lies are coming to the surface as it is becoming clear that the NBN was going to cost nearly 3x what Labor claimed, and be delivered about a decade late, contrary to the claims Labor was making right up to the election.

To make it worse, the premium high speed product was being ignored by the majority of users, and the business case for the NBN was entirely fanciful, if not fraudulent.

"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.

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."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/nbns-7bn-bill-for-3pc-of-network/story-fn59niix-1226837728018

And:

"TAXPAYERS have been spending about $7300 per user to subsidise poorly performing satellite broadband services, the Coalition has declared, as NBN Co advances plans to fix problems with the service.

NBN Co executive chairman Ziggy Switkowski told a heated Senate estimates committee hearing on Tuesday that the interim satellite service left some people in regional and remote communities with services that were “subsistence level in a broadband world”."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/in-depth/nbn-fix-costing-7300-per-user/story-e6frgaif-1226838630755

If Conroy had as CEO of a private company had presided over such a debacle, he would be now looking at an extended jail term.

Dear SM,

You should not treat those guys as incompetent fools:

<<To make it worse, the premium high speed product was being ignored by the majority of users, and the business case for the NBN was entirely fanciful, if not fraudulent.>>

This is all the fault of the Liberals, which by being elected ruined the NBN's business model!

The income was meant to be derived by coercion, not by fraud, with jail sentences for anyone who fails to take up their premium product and making it a criminal offence to disconnect their link to one's home or any of their surveillance devices connected to it.

I don't suppose any of you would be interested in an article on the subject by someone who knows what he's talking about?

http://delimiter.com.au/2013/12/12/please-accept-apologies-wrong-turnbull/

"In that past three years, I have attempted to treat all statements by all sides of politics on their merits. I have treated the Coalition’s statements on the NBN seriously, and I have treated Labor’s statements on the NBN seriously. I have treated the Greens’ statements on the NBN seriously.

Many readers have argued with me about this approach. They have pointed out that Turnbull, and others within the Coalition, have very often taken an inconsistent approach to the NBN, stating one thing and then doing another. There are examples littered throughout the past three years; I need not bring them all up individually....

....In this context, my approach of trying to listen to all sides has rubbed many the wrong way. Many readers believe I have been trying to achieve “balance for balance’s sake” instead of trying to get to the truth of the matter. I haven’t been doing that: I’ve honestly been trying to get to the truth of the matter. Because of this, I’ve argued long and hard with many of you about this issue.

Well, I am here today to formally apologise. I was wrong to have faith in Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition on this issue. You were all right, and I was wrong. Turnbull does indeed appear to be attempting to “demolish” the NBN."

Etc....

"Turnbull does indeed appear to be attempting to “demolish” the NBN."

Well lets bloodily well hope so, we sure can't afford it. It is another of those McMansions people are building, when they only need & can only afford a bungalow.

We were told the NBN would deliver 20 mb/s in this area. They may as well pull the pin on it altogether. The costs are far to great for a lousy 20 mb/s. We will have to wait for proper politics to get a the required speeds.

Hasbeen,

Yes, I see your point.

Reminds me of the WA Liberal govt at the very start of the 80's.

Faced with population growth, but devoid of vision, they decided, not to expand the metropolitan rail network, but instead to close down one of the four lines - the Fremantle line. Close it down they did, and it sat there hosting tumbleweeds until they were voted out and Labor took over.

Labor immediately re-opened the line upon election. Not only that but they set about electrifying and modernising Perth metropolitan trains. They built a new northern line to cater for the vast growth in this region, and eventually expanded south to Mandurah as well.

Perth now has one of the best metropolitan rail systems in the country and is keeping pace with population increase.

I'm sure the govt had to borrow for those infrastructure improvements....

Perth couldn't function nearly as well without them.