Australia described as the ‘communications version of Cuba’

Opposition spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has recently described Australia as ‘the communications version of Cuba’ whilst describing the NBN as a disgrace.

A recent report that was released claimed that Australia was a world leader when it came to public spending on broadband plans. This is something that Opposition spokesperson, Malcolm Turnbull, has been quick to pick up on and after the release of the report he said that the National Broadband Network was a disgrace and that Australia had become the ‘telecommunications version of Cuba’.

The report that Turnbull had latched onto was the third edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s government broadband report. The report, which was published earlier this week, showed that as a nation Australia was the top spender on a global basis, pledging 6.34 percent of the annual government budget revenue for the National Broadband Network.

The report read: ”The outstanding example of extreme government intervention is Australia, where authorities have taken control of the national incumbent’s existing fixed network plan to fund, develop and operate a national fibre-to-the-home network … Competition is to exist only at the retail level.”

Turnbull claims that the NBN has been described as ‘crazy’ by government and industry officials who he has met in Europe. He said: ”The Brits, the Germans, take your pick, right around the world … they think [the] Labor Government’s policy is completely crazy.”

However, a spokesperson for Stephen Conroy said: ”The report by The Economist is yet another example of right-wing dogma that struggles to get the facts right. ‘There is nothing new in this report which again has an ideological obsession that government intervention in the provision of telecommunications infrastructure is bad while private sector investment is good.”

Source – Canberra Times