MEDIA RELEASE - NBN COPPER STOCKPILE SURGES TO 55,911 KM - MONDAY, 22 MARCH 2021

22 March 2021

MICHELLE ROWLAND MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS

MEMBER FOR GREENWAY 

NBN COPPER STOCKPILE SURGES TO 55,911 KM


The Morrison Government has now overseen the purchase of 55,911 kilometres of new copper for its second-rate NBN with taxpayers’ funds, according to a 58 day overdue Question on Notice.

This means in the past 18 months alone, NBNCo has bought enough new copper to wrap around the moon.

Worse still, a recent media report revealed the Coalition knew back in 2013 that deploying fibre was dramatically cheaper than what they claimed in public.

Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Fletcher kept this advice secret and then spent eight years misleading people about the cost of fibre to try to justify their expensive copper and HFC mess.
 
Minister Fletcher couldn’t even reach the finish line before announcing a humiliating backflip to fibre.
 
With waste as far as the eye can see – is it any wonder the cost of their copper NBN has blown out from $29 billion, to $41 billion, to $49 billion and now $57 billion?

SATURDAY, 20 MARCH 2021