LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: One of the big points of difference between the major parties in the next federal election is going to be their broadband internet policies.

The Government's pushing ahead with its multi-billion-dollar National Broadband Network to put a fibre optic cable to 90 per cent of households giving high-speed internet.

The Coalition's opposed to the NBN and instead wants a cheaper plan that still involves a fibre optic cable network but relies on copper wire for the final delivery to homes and businesses.

Today, the Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull launched an online survey to find out what places in Australia are most in need of faster internet access, although if you're one of those people who don't have internet access, it might be slightly difficult to submit the online form.

To discuss the Coalition's plans, I'm joined in the studio now by the Shadow Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

Thanks for joining us, Mr Turnbull.

MALCOLOM TURNBULL, OPPOSITION COMMUNICATIONS SPOKESMAN: Great to be with you. www.fasterbroadband.com.au

LEIGH SALES: (Laughs) Didn't take you long at all to work that in.

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: I didn't bring a sign, though.

LEIGH SALES: (Laughs)

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: I should've.

LEIGH SALES: The Government's broadband policy promises that by 2021, nine out of 10 homes will have broadband internet at speeds of 100 megabits per second at a cost of around $37.4 billion. Would you please give me a comparable figure for your policy?

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Well our figure will be a lot less than that. I don't think the Government by the way can do it for anything approaching $37 billion and I don't think they can do it within 10 years. They are way behind schedule already. You've got to remember they said only 18 months ago that by the end of June next year, they would have 511,000 households connected to the fibre cable. Now they're saying it'll only be 54,000. And yet at 30th June this year - as far as we know, and they're not very good at providing information - they only had about 5,000 connected. So, this project is really running so slowly and disappointing so many people.

LEIGH SALES: OK. We've unpacked their policy, now let's unpack yours. I said they've got nine out of 10 homes which will have broadband internet at speeds of 100 megabits per second. What will you have?

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Well what we would have if we take out approach, we will be able to deliver very fast broadband much sooner, much cheaper and more affordably.

LEIGH SALES: OK, how fast?

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Now the cost - well let me tell you first what the cost differential is. By taking the fibre to a cabinet that is, say, 1,000 metres or less, mostly less, from the premises, that's a saving of about three quarters. It's about - the difference between fibre to the cabinet and fibre to the premises cost differential is about four to one.

LEIGH SALES: So does that mean you think your policy's going to be around $10 to $12 billion?

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Well, this is where I'm reluctant to put a precise figure on it, Leigh, only because I don't know what contracts they've entered into. Now if Stephen Conroy were to open up the books of the NBN Co and allow us to do have access to it, we could do the work and come up with a different set of numbers. But the one thing can I say to you - and this is not a theory, this is based on real live experience happening now in comparable countries - that fibre to the cabinet will deliver for most of its customers in those areas in less than 1,000 metres speeds of between 25 megabits per second for the people that are the furthest away, for most people speeds of 50 or better and for a third, 80 megabits per second. Now that's the experience in the United Kingdom.

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: And how many people - 100 per cent of people are you saying will have speeds between 25 and 80? Is that what you're saying?

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Yeah, well, yes, very close to - there's always gonna be somebody that's living on the top of a mountain, you know ...

LEIGH SALES: But you can't tell us how many people will have 25 and how many people will have 80.

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: It depends on the length of the copper. You're probably talking about, well in - I'll be very conservative and I would say three quarters would be either between 50 megs and 80 megs and the - those people at the edge may be in the 25-megabits-per-second area.

LEIGH SALES: When you can't give specific ...

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: I'm just - yeah, sure ...

LEIGH SALES: Sorry, when you can't give specific detail about cost or exactly about who will have what speeds, doesn't it mean that your vow that, "We'll definitely bring it in for less than the Government, we'll definitely get it running faster," that's meaningless if you can't give the specific details of your policy?

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Well I will give you some very specific details. The cost differential between fire to the cabinet and fibre to the node on the one hand and fibre to the premises, which is what the Government is doing, is pretty much everywhere in the developed world it is - there's a ratio of about four to one, four to three to one.

LEIGH SALES: You've made the point that there are other costs that you're going to have to deal about with if you dismantle the NBN. You're going to have to pay out contracts that are already there.

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Well this is why I'm ...

LEIGH SALES: But this is why I'm saying you can't say that you'll definitely be bringing it for less than the Government's ...

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Oh, no, well, it'll definitely be less. Look, it'll definitely be a lot less and a lot sooner. The question is ...

LEIGH SALES: But if I were buying a car and the guy in the car yard next door said to me, "Well I can meet your needs for a lot less and I can deliver it to you much faster," I'd be feeling a little bit anxious and being worried I'd be getting a lemon.

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Well, I don't think it's really an apt metaphor. The - most people in the engineering industry, the civil construction industry that are familiar with the NBN think that the cost of the project is likely to be as much as twice as the Government is forecasting and take 20 years. You've got to remember that the cost of the project, which is what everybody focused on initially, is now becoming a second-order issue because thousands and thousands of people are simply not getting any wireline service at all. There are housing estates, I've been to them, where the pits and pipes have been put in place ready for the NBN. Eight months later, the NBN hasn't even turned up. People don't even have a telephone other than a mobile phone. So this - so the project is failing.

Now - now the challenge I've got, Leigh, and I just want you to think about my position. This is my challenge: we've got a project that is supposed to deliver very fast broadband to all Australian, an objective that we completely endorse. But the problem is it is costing far too much and it's taking far too long. So my challenge is to find a way of recalibrating it so that you achieve the objective of giving people broadband that's fast enough to do everything they want to do, now and foreseeably, and will cost a lot less and be much faster to deploy. And so that's why we're saying, "Don't be hung up on one technology. Use fibre to the premises where it makes sense, in new estates, in geographies where it's cost effective. But don't be hung up on that as the only way to go. And if you can get very high speeds with fibre to the cabinet, then - as indeed you can and telcos around the world are doing that, then why not do that?"

LEIGH SALES: I want to talk about something else. In a recent speech you said that we don't often hear politicians discuss challenges in a genuinely open, honest, spin-free and non-adversarial way. Can you think of any ways to immediately improve things?

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Well I did canvass a change to Question Time. I mean, I didn't - I'm not vain enough to come up with Malcolm Turnbull's Acme Patent Question Time Solution, but I did point to the fact that in the House of Commons in the UK, Question Time operates differently and there's Prime Minister's Question Time one day a week and on the other days of the week they roll through the different departments one after the other.

LEIGH SALES: If you were Opposition Leader or Prime Minister in the future, would you look at imposing a system like that?

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Well, look, I think - I don't want to speculate about that, but I think we should look at alternatives. The - you know, I think in the Australian context people would be reluctant if the Prime Minister didn't show up every day. But wouldn't it be great if, you know, one day, you had a focus on Health, another day you had a focus on Education, another day you had a focus on Defence. The problem is if - with the Question Time as it's structured at the moment is that the questions are invariably dominated by whatever is the headline issue of the day as between the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister. And this has got nothing to do with Gillard or Abbott or Turnbull and Rudd for that matter. It is - you know, that's just - the system is designed to do that.

LEIGH SALES: Is the system ...

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: And I think that leaves a lot of important issues unexamined in the prime time of Parliament, which is what Question Time is.

LEIGH SALES: Is the system the reason why public trust in our political leaders is so low?

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Well, look, I - you know ...

LEIGH SALES: Or is it the leaders themselves?

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: No, look, I mean, public trust in politicians has probably never been very high. I mean, we always ...

LEIGH SALES: It's possibly never been lower.

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Well, I don't know. Who knows? It certainly - it would be better if it were higher, I'd agree with that.

LEIGH SALES: Why do you say it's as low as it is?

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Well I think part of it is the sense of relentless antagonism and that is - I think the way Question Time is designed is part of that. I mean, you've got to ask yourself: is Question Time really - is it working for - I mean - and, look, and it's not - the Government is - you've gotta remember the Government is largely at fault for this. I mean, there is a reason they call it Question Time. They don't call it "Answer Time" because there are no answers!

LEIGH SALES: You would say that. You would say that (inaudible) as a member of the Opposition.

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: No, no, but in an hour and a half of Question Time, Leigh, the Opposition utters only a handful of minutes, just the questions, 10 questions. The Government has 20 answers and 10 questions. So, it's the failure - the failure of governments and government ministers to respond meaningfully is a big part of the problem. But I think - also think having the focus on that Olympian struggle between the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister every day does inevitably distract attention from other portfolios. So that's - look, that's what I raised. And, I mean, the British - you know, Britain is a democracy. They've got a Parliament, I'm told, that's been going for quite a while. Seems to work OK. And so I've just tendered their alternative as something for to us reflect on.

LEIGH SALES: Well I would love to keep pursuing this, but I'm getting the frantic wind-up. Malcolm Turnbull, thank you very much for joining us.

MALCOLOM TURNBULL: Thanks very much.