Australians do not need the super-fast internet speeds promised when Labor wanted to roll out the National Broadband Network, Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne says.

Key points: Christopher Pyne defends Coalition's roll out of NBN

Christopher Pyne defends Coalition's roll out of NBN Anthony Albanese says network is about economy, not watching movies

Anthony Albanese says network is about economy, not watching movies Pyne accuses media of beating up on Immigration Minister over refugee comments

Labor headed into the 2013 election promising its NBN would deliver download speeds of 1Gbps through a network mainly consisting of fibre to the home.

The Coalition's version aims to have significantly slower download speeds of 25Mbps, but was pitched as having a smaller price tag and earlier completion date.

In the wake of AFP raids over the leaking of documents showing cost blow-outs with the network, Mr Pyne was asked on Q&A if the Government regretted its policy.

"Absolutely not," Mr Pyne said, "And there has not been a delay of the NBN".

Mr Pyne, the Minister for Innovation, Science and Industry, said the Coalition's NBN would cost "$30 billion less" and "it will all be finished by 2020, not 2024 as Labor was promising".

"[People] simply didn't need the speeds that Labor was promising, but it was costing an absolute bomb.

"You will be able to watch five full-length movies in the same household if you all want to at the same time.

"Which is a lot of movies. That's a lot of televisions."

Mr Pyne's rival on the program, Labor shadow infrastructure and transport spokesman Anthony Albanese, responded by saying "the NBN isn't about movies, it's about our economy and how it functions".

"Malcolm Turnbull's fraud-band is double the cost of what ... he said it would be.

"It is half the speed of what he said it would be. And the delay is extraordinary."

Mr Albanese criticised the Coalition for continuing to use copper wiring, technology he described as "19th Century stuff".

"When we said that he was going to produce coppers to the home, we didn't think it was literally. But that's what happened last week," Mr Albanese said, in reference to the AFP raids.

Late last year the NBN was forced to defend its roll out, despite leaked documents showing major concerns about the state of the Optus cable network.

Leaked briefing notes showed NBN considered the Optus network — which it bought for $800 million in August — was "not fully fit for purpose", and that some equipment would need to be replaced.

The notes indicated about 470,000 premises could need to be reconnected to accommodate the NBN.

Media accused of 'twisting' Dutton comments

Mr Pyne also leapt to the defence of Peter Dutton, after an audience member asked if the Liberal Party was "super embarrassed" by the Immigration Minister after last week's controversy over refugees.

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Mr Dutton drew criticism after saying increasing the refugee intake to 50,000 would result in an influx of illiterate and innumerate refugees who would take Australian jobs and put pressure on Medicare and Centrelink services, resulting in "huge cost".

Mr Pyne said the comments were "spun out of context" and criticised the media for twisting Mr Dutton's words.

"It costs a great deal of money to have those settlement services, and he was making the point that if you increase that to 50,000, someone has to pay for that," Mr Pyne said.

"He wasn't in the least bit trying to talk down refugees."

Mr Albanese accused Mr Dutton of "dog-whistling", and while he backed the Coalition's offshore processing stance, he called for a more effective resettlement process for refugees.

Both Mr Pyne and Mr Albanese said refugees had made a valuable contribution to Australian society.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will take questions on his own during next week's Q&A, Monday at 9.30pm on ABC TV.