Federal Government acts to keep the NBN in public hands

The Federal Government has introduced legislation to keep the National Broadband Network (NBN) in public ownership.

Member for Robertson Dr Gordon Reid said the government was protecting the NBN from the Liberal Party.

“We have seen from history (that) Liberal governments have a fixation with selling off assets that belong to the Australian people,” Reid said.

“We know that when our assets are privatised, prices increase and service delivery diminishes.

“Our Government committed at the election to deliver accessible internet for all, and we continue to take that forward.”

Reid said high speed broadband was essential to modern life, allowing Australians to work remotely, run their businesses more productively, video-conference with clients and colleagues, supply and receive telehealth services – while enjoying leisure with their families through streaming.

The Government says the Coalition rushed to declare the NBN ‘complete’ so they could put it on the block for sale.

Reid says that as well as protecting it from sale, the Government has also invested $2.4B to expand full fibre NBN access to an additional 1.5 million premises – including 660,000 rural and regional communities.

“From September next year, download speeds will be boosted by up to five times at no extra wholesale cost,” he said.

“A household or small business with a 100 Mbps plan in 2024 will benefit from 500 Mbps connectivity in 2025.

“The Government is also rolling out more fibre in the fixed line network, upgrading the fixed-wireless network and planning for future needs.”

Minister for Finance Katy Gallagher said the NBN was critical national infrastructure.

“We know that having a faster, higher quality NBN network has a huge impact on Australia’s economy – delivering a $400B uplift in GDP by 2030,” she said.

“Economic analysis commissioned by NBN Co shows that for every one megabit per second increase in average broadband speed, Australia’s productivity-driven GDP increased on average by 0.04 per cent.”