Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced his government will “finish” the National Broadband Network with a $3 billion upgrade to provide 622,000 additional fibre access connections across the country.

“Families and businesses deserve high-speed internet at an affordable price. Labor created the NBN. Only Labor will finish the NBN and, importantly, only keep the NBN in public hands,” Albanese said on Monday.

“Imagine what COVID would have been like if didn’t have the NBN. Then take yourselves back a little while, where last time the Coalition were seeking government, they said it they would stop the roll-out of fibre [and] keep a copper-based NBN, because it was all about, according to Tony Abbott, just downloading videos and movies.

“They didn’t understand that the NBN is about productivity. It’s about driving the economy. It’s about creating jobs. It’s about how we live our life.”