Subject: NBN
E&OE…
David Coleman: Good afternoon. Well, under Labor the NBN is an absolute disaster. It’s haemorrhaging customers and it’s haemorrhaging taxpayers’ cash. The NBN is losing customers in three out of four of its products. The NBN satellite business has lost almost a quarter of its customers under Labor. It’s getting absolutely smashed by Elon Musk and Starlink. People who live in existing homes have dropped the NBN in record numbers with more than 100,000 fewer homes being under the existing homes product than when Labor came into Government. And even in mobile broadband, the NBN is not gaining customers. The satellite business is in crisis. If you talk to pretty much anyone in regional Australia, they will tell you that NBN is a joke. People are getting rid of the NBN every day and they’re signing up for other products because those other products are providing a much better service for them. And so the question is, what are you going to do about it? You’re seeing this huge loss of customers and at the same time, a huge loss of taxpayer cash. Last financial year, the NBN’s cash loss was $1.4 billion, $1.4 billion paid by Australian taxpayers. It is a mess, and the Government is absolutely missing in action. Now in terms of this announcement today about additional investment in the NBN, the Coalition won’t stand in the way of that investment. We’ve seen similar equity investments in other Government owned enterprises like Western Sydney Airport and ANI. We won’t be standing in the way of this. We’ll take advice from the Department of Finance, if we’re successful in the election, on the best way of implementing this new investment. But the real question for the Government today is, what are you going to do to actually fix the NBN? Customers are leaving every day. Taxpayers are losing cash every day and the Government is missing in action. It’s a typically weak, hands-off and just hopeless response from this weak and hopeless Government.
Journalist: (Inaudible). Do you see that as a positive development for the nation’s telecommunications industry?
David Coleman: We won’t stand in the way of the investment the Government has announced today. We haven’t stood in the way of similar investments in other Government-owned enterprises. So no, we won’t be standing in the way of that. If the Government feels that’s an appropriate investment, we’re happy to support it.
Journalist: Heading into an election year, what, if anything differently, would you look to do if the Coalition won Government to fix what you described as a mess?
David Coleman: We’ll have more to say about our policy areas in due course. But the question for today is, what on earth is the Government doing to fix the NBN? The Government owns the NBN. The Government is meant to be running NBN effectively, but the NBN is a mess, and the Government seems to think the NBN is about standing by the side of the road in a hi-vis vest for a photo opportunity. It’s about, not that, it’s about a lot more than that. It’s about providing quality services to Australians and about ensuring that taxpayers money is well spent. We’ve seen massive price increases in the NBN. In an eight-month period, we saw price increases of over 13%, affecting more than 6 million Australians. More than 6 million Australian families pay as much as 13% extra in a period of just 8 or 9 months under the NBN, so there’s a huge range of issues. The Government is missing in action, and they need to take action to address the crisis facing the NBN.
Journalist: I think the Government is viewing this as the move off copper and onto fibre. Was it a mistake by the Coalition, back when Malcom Turnbull was the Communications Minister, to buy back the copper networks and use them for the NBN? (Inaudible)
David Coleman: Labor’s original plan for the NBN was a complete joke. It was written on the back of a napkin. There was no proper analysis, it was ridiculous. The Coalition built it years sooner and for tens of billions of dollars less than the Labor Government would have, would have invested into it. Labor just has no idea when it comes to the NBN and we’re seeing that in what’s happening today. We’re seeing that with so many tens of thousands of customers getting rid of NBN. We’re seeing that in Labor’s inability to make the NBN affordable, which is a big part of why so many Australians are leaving the NBN for other services and that’s what the Government should be trying to fix. Thank you.