Prime Minister Julia Gillard said today that opposing Labor's $43 billion National Broadband Network (NBN) is like opposing the building of the railroad years ago.
Gillard, under fire for questioning the cost of aged pension increases and the government's paid parental scheme, defended the NBN when quizzed by reporters in Adelaide.
"I am absolutely satisfied that the NBN was the right investment for this country's future," she said.
It would transform the way people lived and worked, and the way services were provided.
"Being opposed to the NBN is the modern-day equivalent of having opposed the railroad back years and years ago," Gillard said.
"When the trains got built, they transformed the way the economy worked, they transformed the way people lived. The NBN will do that."
Gillard said she was "absolutely amazed" that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott wanted to cut measures that would modernise Australia's economy.
"National Broadband Network — I'll build it, he won't," she said.
"Computers in schools — I deliver them, he won't. Electronic health records — I deliver them, he won't."
Abbott was turning his face against modernity, Gillard said.