Abbott continues slating NBN

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has continued slating the National Broadband Network, once again describing it as the ‘one of the all time white elephants’ in a recent interview.

If there is one thing you have to give the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, credit for it’s his consistency and passion when it comes to slating the National Broadband Network. Abbott kicked off the New Year with a frank, no hold barred interview in which he described the National Broadband Network as ‘one of the all time white elephants’

Speaking at a recent interview on a radio station he said that the more that was learned about the National Broadband Network, the worse it all sounded. He added that the news that there were 2500 fibre subscribers and 1500 wireless ones “just confirms that this is going to be one of the all time great white elephants.”

Abbott was very vocal about the amount of money that has been and is still being spent on the NBN, including the cost of paying salaries for those working for the NBN and how this would affect the overall cost.

He said: “Vast amounts of money spent, $50 billion-plus and going up all the time, to give us something that most people don’t want, don’t need and don’t want to pay more for. The interesting thing … is that there are about 1,000 people working for the NBN. That’s one employee for every four subscribers and the average wage of the NBN is $155,000. Now, this is the best remunerated company in Australia and one person earning $155,000 a year for every four subscribers and the billion dollars that they have spent so far on the rollout works out at $250,000 per connection. It’s yet another sign this is a Government which is utterly incompetent and just can’t be trusted when it comes to spending taxpayers’ money.”