Turnbull needs to come clean on the cost of HFC rollout delays to taxpayers

28 November 2017

The Turnbull Government’s delayed HFC rollout could cost taxpayers between $420 to $790 million, based on analysis previously approved by the NBN board.

 

The 2016 NBN Corporate Plan contains a sensitivity analysis which notes the following:

 

 

These figures, signed off by the NBN Board and Shareholder Ministers, clearly state a seven month delay in the HFC activations profile would have a $1 billion impact on rollout funding.

 

On 24 May 2017, the Senate had NBN confirm the $1 billion figure was based on a seven month delay, for three million services, with an average revenue of $47 per month.

 

It has now been revealed that problems with Turnbull’s second-rate NBN could further delay the HFC rollout by 6 to 9 months for up to 2.5 million premises.

 

Based on the figures signed off by the NBN Board these delays could impact funding by between $420 and $790 million.

 

The question for Malcolm Turnbull is this — what impact will this latest delay to the HFC rollout have on funding for the NBN?

 

Just how much taxpayer’s money is being wasted by this latest failure?

 

“The reality is this – Malcolm Turnbull is deploying a second-rate NBN that costs more and does less. It’s nearly 2018 and he still can’t make it work,” Ms Rowland said.

 

It’s time for Turnbull to come clean about the escalating cost of his unravelling multi-technology mess.