Malcolm Turnbull rejects online petition to keep Labor's NBN plan, saying democracy has spoken

Updated

The Coalition has hit back at an online petition to scrap its National Broadband Network plan, saying the election victory gives it a mandate to implement its policy.

The petition, launched earlier this week by Queensland university student Nick Paine, has gathered more than 200,000 signatures.

Mr Paine, 20, said he wanted to protest the Coalition's plans to switch the NBN to a $29.5 billion fibre-to-the-node model.

He wants the new government to continue rolling out the $44.1 billion fibre-to-the-premises network begun under Labor.

The Coalition Government's communications spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull, posted a statement on his website saying the party's election win gave it a mandate to go ahead with its NBN plan.

"The promoters of this petition apparently believe that we should ignore the lengthy public debate on the NBN that preceded the election and also ignore the election result," he said.

NBN plans compared Fixed line speeds 100mbps

(1000mbps in future) 25-100mbps Satellite speeds 12mpbs-25mbps 12mpbs-25mbps Fibre to home 93% of premises 22% of premises Fibre to node 0% of premises 71% of premises Finished by 2021 2019 Cost $44 billion $29.5 billion

Read our explainer on the network differences

"[That] we should, within days of the election, walk away from one of our most well-debated, well-understood and prominent policies.

"Democracy? I don't think so."

A fibre-to-the-premises network connects every home and business with optical fibre cables.

The Coalition plan uses optical fibre to street cabinets and then uses Telstra's copper network for the last leg.

It is ultimately slower internet, but it can be rolled out faster and cheaper.

Mr Turnbull said the suggestion that a fibre-to-the-premises network should be rolled out regardless of time or cost was "reckless in the extreme".

"The NBN project at present is running over budget and way behind schedule," he said.

"There will be a strategic review conducted within the next 60 days which will show how long it will take and how much it will cost to complete the NBN on the current specifications and what that means both to the taxpayer and to the consumers."

Topics: information-and-communication, science-and-technology, computers-and-technology, internet-technology, turnbull-malcolm, government-and-politics, australia

First posted