Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's words in opposition have come back to bite him after Labor used the launch of NBN Co's second Sky Muster satellite today to remind him of statements he would rather forget.

Labor shadow communications spokesperson Michelle Rowland said the party welcomed today's launch of the second NBN satellite – which was its idea.

She pointed out that Turnbull had opposed the use of purpose-built satellites when he was in opposition.

Rowland quoted from a media release issued by the member for Wentworth on 8 February 2012 titled "Satellite deal - more wasteful NBN spending".

Turnbull said in that release: "There is enough capacity on private satellites already in orbit or scheduled for launch for the NBN to deliver broadband to the 200,000 or so premises in remote Australia without building its own."

On the same day, Rowland pointed out, Turnbull had made this claim during a doorstop: "Now the satellite industry, which is a large one, has told us and told anyone else who cares to listen, that there is more than enough capacity on existing satellites. That’s existing satellites available for lease and satellites that are scheduled to be launched already to provide broadband services to the several hundred thousand customers in rural and remote Australia that these satellites of the NBN are going to service."

Michelle Rowland: On the attack.

That seems to be somewhat at odds with the fact that the Coalition has now presided over the launch of not one, but two satellites!

But Rowland wasn't done yet. "And in a classic display of all his assumptions being proven wrong in his second-rate NBN, the satellite provider which Mr Turnbull spruiked as being ripe for leasing capacity from, actually went bankrupt," she said.

She cited more material from the same doorstop: “There are Australian companies, there’s one Australian company in particular NewSat… they’re presumably pretty capable at what they’re doing. Anyway, they’ve been brushed, they don’t get a look in here. There’s no need for the NBN to own this infrastructure itself..."

Rowland claimed that there were additionally more reports of Turnbull stuffing up the installation process for Labor’s NBN satellite services.

"In addition to the backlog of tens of thousands of rural and remote customers waiting for installations, there are more cases coming to light of Sky Muster services being 'riddled with problems' including poor connections, dropouts, a highly restrictive fair use policy, and customers unable to use their allocated data because it is only available when they are asleep," she said.

Retail providers of satellite services were hamstrung, Rowland claimed, adding that consumers did not know where to turn. "I have had rural and remote small business owners tell me they are considering moving because they believe the new service being delivered is so unreliable," she added.

In a final parting shot, she said: "Unlike Mr Turnbull, Labor looked to the future needs of Australians living outside our capital cities when it provisioned these NBN satellites. It’s just a pity that now he’s a convert, Mr Turnbull is stuffing up the service like he’s doing with the rest of the NBN."