Stay the course on NBN - Greens

The Australian Greens have confirmed their support for NBNCo remaining a publicly-owned fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network, and urged the Opposition to reconsider its proposal to leave up to nine million households and businesses stranded on an obsolete copper network.

"NBNCo is behind schedule and will have to work hard to catch up on lost time, but the proposal is still vastly superior to the Opposition's part-privatised patchwork which will require the installation of 70-80,000 powered cabinets and entrench a two-tier telecommunications network," Senator Scott Ludlam said on  April 19, the day of a Joint NBN committee hearing fronted by NBN CEO Mike Quigley.

"The coalition had the opportunity to critique NBNCo's numbers in a fact-based environment, and came up with nothing. The committee hearing was highly instructive."

"As Australia transitions away from an economy based on resource-depletion, the Greens believe telecommunications will play an increasingly vital role. We will ensure these issues stay at the forefront in the run to the election, so that the risks of #fraudband remains uppermost in people's minds."