Libs warned against NBN trashing rampage
Greens Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam today welcomed Malcolm Turnbull's appointment as shadow communications minister but warned the Liberal heavyweight against "wrecking" Labor's National Broadband Network project.
Just hours after winning the post yesterday, Turnbull blasted the NBN, saying it would waste tens of billions of dollars of taxpayers' money.
"Malcolm Turnbull obviously brings a wealth of knowledge to this field and I welcome the increased focus it will bring to the portfolio. But I am concerned that he has simply been placed there to 'demolish' the broadband roll-out, which has widespread public and industry support," Ludlam said in a statement, adding that "political wrecking tactics" would not be welcomed.
The Greens senator said his party understood the importance of transparency and of testing the government's economic assumptions. However, he said coalition slogans to the effect that the NBN was a "giant white elephant" and a "colossal destruction of taxpayers' money" were unhelpful and purely political.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott this morning said one of Malcolm's roles as the new shadow communications minister would be to expose problems with the NBN with the aim of wooing Independent MPs back to the Coalition's camp.
"Holding the government ferociously to account is one thing, using a crucial infrastructure project like this as a platform to bring down a minority government is another," said Ludlam.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has also said that the Opposition is simply trying to trash the NBN.
"The Opposition showed in the election campaign that it didn't get what broadband could mean to our economy and our communities," she said. "They are now trying to trash what's happening because their only strategy is a negative strategy. They don't have a positive policy."
She said that Turnbull came into parliament with a lot of commercial expertise and that he should use that to explain why the Opposition had an $11 billion black hole in its election promises.
"Until the Opposition can give a creditable account why that happened I'm not sure anybody should believe their assertions about figures."
In reply, self-proclaimed internet freak Turnbull agreed that the internet was vital to Australia's future.
"The question is how do we deliver broadband across the nation, how do we deal with it in a way that is cost effective," he said. "Our plan is to provide additional backbone where there is a lack of competition, largely to regional areas."
He said that the Opposition would provide subsidies to ensure regional and remote areas have access to broadband comparable to the cities.
Turnbull also said that the NBN would probably be worth only half the money spent on it when it is complete.
"What I say, and what most industry analysts say, that in fact what you will end up with is an asset worth a fraction of [$43 billion], somewhere between one quarter and one half that investment."