Tony Abbott to axe National Broadband Network
Kevin Rudd’s grand plans for a National Broadband Network (NBN) will come to nothing with Tony Abbott preparing to slash Government spending if the Liberal Party wins the next federal election.
Tony Abbott will take the axe to the $43 billion NBN as the Liberal Party plans to cuts Government spending by $10 billion in an effort to pay off the debt accumulated by Kevin Rudd’s government through fiscal stimulus measures designed to keep the Australian economy out of recession during the global financial crisis.
“I won’t specify yet what might be targeted, but if you want to cut spending, look at the NBN,” Mr Abbott told News Ltd.
“Not proceeding with it could save billions of dollars.” he said.
The Minister responsible for rolling out the NBN, Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was critical of Abbott’s proposed cuts to the program.
“The NBN is crucial economic infrastructure,” Senator Conroy Said.
“Without it, Australian companies will not be able compete with the likes of Japan, Korea or Singapore.”
Up to 25,000 jobs are under threat if Tony Abbott cuts the NBN funding Senator Conroy believes.
Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott attacked Kevin Rudd’s economic credentials in an interview yesterday before the release of the Henry Tax Review, which Tony Abbott argued was a stealth method of increasing tax revenue for the Government.
“It’s a government so addicted to spending, the longer it lasts, the better the Whitlam government looks,” he said.
“What we are doing at the moment is looking at Mr Rudd’s spendathon, working out where we can reduce that spending spree and pay for our sensible policies,” he told the Seven Network on Wednesday.
“We certainly think there are better ways to spend money on schools than giving it to the state education bureaucracies, which have wasted so much money hand over fist,” he said.
great, we’ve got one of the worst broadband networks in the developed country and this doofus doesn’t want to fix it.
The major centres already have cable that makes fast broadband available and most households only want wireless. Abbott once again is on the money. The sooner he becomes PM the better this country will be.
We currently have one of the slowest broadband services in the developed world, and we suffer enormously in terms of trade and with just trying to keep up with our trading, and other technical partners overseas. Despite this, this moron wants us to stay at the bottom of the heap!
An intellectual he ain’t!! A headline grabber he is!!!
I’m by no means a fan of Conroy, but when it comes his opinions on Abbott, Conroy’s in the ‘enemy of my enemy’ basket. Umm Noel, I’ve heard a lot of people echoing these sentiments about Abbott. Are you all talking about the same policy-bereft jug-eared cretin that is currently head of Opposition? I don’t know how that clown could improve anything!
Noel most major centres? I live an hour away from the nearest “city” and it isn’t a “major” enough to have access to cable broadband. I think you need to rethink your comment as there are a lot of us away from “major centres” that want better broadband connections.
The village I live in has had ADSL active for only the past three or four years, we can’t access ADSL2+ at all, let alone cable. NBN might not reach us but I’m willing to take that chance.
Hey Tony Abbot, we all want faster intranet because this one sucks. If you want to win an election you need to appeal to everyone and at the moment your about as appealing as looking at a bloke in speedos.
You want to pay back Kevin Dudd’s debt? government needs to grow and legalise the sale of marijuana through government franchises.
Good on the Liberals for getting rid of the NBN
Malcolm Turnbull has shown very clearly in his paper why the NBN will fail why this will never be a goer.
The NBN is way over the top when most large and medium sized businesses have their own arrangements with high
speed fibre networks and other mere mortals can manage with what they have got.
We would be far better off using the money to build a high speed rail link between Melbourne Sydney and Brisbane along the lines of the French system. It would be quicker than flying by the time you take
account of the toing and froing to and from airports. Might not suit Qantas but who cares? – they will be bought out by Singapore or British Airways at some point.
How can you say most households only want wireless. Why would most Australians want an unreliable, slow and congested service, Where the signal has trouble penetrating through a tin roof! Why would I want that?
at the moment wireless is the ONLY internet option available to people and businesses at my location. Try using a connection where your maximum speed is 47KB/s. Its slower than Dial-Up.
Under the proposed NBN maps. My area would be upgraded to have access to 100MB/s connections. Tell me Noel, why would I want a 47KB/s wireless connection, when I could have a 100MB/s connection??
Please check Fibre optic cable I believe its only good for 15 to 20 years then it has to be replaced so by the time we all have fibre opics it will need replacing an ongoing cost there will be a more advanced method soon and fibre optics will be out dated ( wait awhile )
That would be incorrect. The fibre optic cables themselves will last indefinitely (ie: upwards of 100 years unless damaged in their environment) the connectors at each end will likely be upgraded to provide faster speeds as this becomes economical though. Telstra recently did this on their Sydney to Melbourne link and quadrupled the bandwidth between the two cities on the same fibre optic cable: http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/articles/articles-news/telstra-sydney-melbourne-bandwidth-1520.html
This upgrading of both ends equipment will not require relaying the cable and will be relatively inexpensive compared to the total cost of the NBN.