Turnbull told to turn independents

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott this morning said that one of Malcolm Turnbull's roles as the new shadow communications minister would be to expose problems with Labor's National Broadband Network project, and thereby woo independent MPs back to the Coalition's camp.

It was the support of several independent MPs such as Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Andrew Wilkie who allowed Labor Leader Julia Gillard to form government and take the Prime Ministership once again. All three cited broadband as a key reason to support Labor.

However, this morning, Abbott told ABC Radio National that his aim would be to convince the Independents to switch sides, with the first arrow set to his bow being yesterday's appointment of Liberal heavyweight Malcolm Turnbull as shadow communications minister.

"I think that's what we should be doing," said Abbott after being asked whether his aim would be to turn the Independents. "And as I said, with someone like Malcolm in charge of communications policy, in charge of exposing the waste and extravagance inherent in the government's broadband plans, that becomes a very real prospect."

Turnbull yesterday blasted the NBN straight out of the gates, saying it would waste tens of billions of dollars of taxpayers' money.

This morning, Abbott repeated his previous statements that the project was "school halls on steroids" and said that around the world, no country had proposed spending anything like Labor had under the project. He wasn't sure that even Telstra had been convinced of the veracity of the project, claiming that Labor had bought the telco out with its $11 billion deal with NBN Co.

"His job is to explain that this is not a sensible policy for Australia and that this is typical of a Labor government which is addicted to waste and incompetence," said Abbott.