National broadband network: Coalition spends $10m on cost-benefit analyses

THE Coalition said Labor’s national broadband network was a waste of money. Now we can reveal how much it has spent on its own cost-benefit studies.

THE Abbott Government has spent more than $10 million in taxpayers’ money to work out whether the national broadband network is good value.

As superfast broadband continues to be rolled out across the country, consultants have been the biggest winners, pocketing millions of dollars from numerous reviews and cost-benefit analyses.

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A Question on Notice tabled in Federal Parliament revealed the external consulting cost for the NBN was $10.1 million. The cost of implementing the recommendations was not included.

Boston Consulting Group, KordaMentha and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu received the biggest financial boon from the government-commissioned reviews.

A spokesman for Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the outlay was worth it, but Labor’s Jason Clare attacked the Government for its delay on the NBN.

“All we have seen from Malcolm Turnbull is delay, delay and more delay because he is focused on these expensive reviews instead of building the NBN,’” Mr Clare said.

“What these expensive reviews won’t reveal is how many promises Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull have broken since the election. Before the election Tony Abbott said all Australians would get the NBN by 2016. After the election he broke that promise.

“Malcolm Turnbull said he would negotiate a new agreement with Telstra months ago, that still hasn’t happened.

“Malcolm Turnbull also claims that his second-rate NBN will cost taxpayers $30 billion less than Labor’s fibre-to-the-premises NBN. The actual difference in taxpayer investment is less than $1 billion.”

A spokesman for Mr Turnbull criticised Labor for an NBN cost blowout.

“The NBN Co spent more than $500 million on consultants, lawyers and external service providers under Labor. It is a great shame Labor did not bother to do their homework or due diligence before embarking on the NBN project and wasting billions of dollars,” he said.

Labor intended to connect fibre to individual buildings. It was scheduled to be finished by 2018 but a review found it would not be finished for another decade. Mr Turnbull wants to roll out fibre-optic cables to cabinets that service whole neighbourhoods. Government analysis predicts 200,000 will have access to this in less than 12 months.