Will Hodgman gaffe caught on tape

TASMANIAN Liberal leader Will Hodgman has been caught on microphone complaining that the Coalition's scaled-back NBN could cost him the state election.

TASMANIAN Liberal leader Will Hodgman has been caught on microphone complaining that the Coalition's scaled-back National Broadband Network could cost him the state election.

Mr Hodgman was heard on microphone yesterday making the private remark to a fellow state MP about the Coalition's shift to use existing copper wire for part of the rollout.

"It could cost us the election anyway -- that's democracy," he remarked to the Liberal MP, apparently thinking he was out of earshot of nearby journalists.

Mr Hodgman last week revealed he had lobbied federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to honour fully an election pledge to complete the NBN rollout in Tasmania with fibre-optic cable to the premise.

NBN Co has said that, from next year, the rollout, which is more advanced in Tasmania than elsewhere because it began there earlier, would be completed with a mix of technologies. This included using existing copper wire networks to deliver the super-fast internet from central nodes to individual premises.

Mr Hodgman has joined Labor Premier Lara Giddings in calling for the full 225,000 premise rollout to be completed as fibre to the premise, if necessary using Tasmania's state-owned power-poles for an aerial deployment.

Mr Hodgman yesterday stood by the stance that the issue was "critical" for Tasmania, but suggested his aside about losing the election had been taken out of context.

The Liberals are well ahead in the polls -- 47.2 per cent to Labor's 24.6 per cent and the Greens' 17.2 per cent -- and argue they are more likely to broker a good outcome on the NBN than state Labor.

Labor has been campaigning hard on the issue of having a state government capable of "standing up to Tony Abbott".

Ms Giddings yesterday joined federal infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese in a street in Launceston they claimed would be divided in half by the NBN downgrade. "Half the street has access to superfast fibre to the door, while the other half has been told it will have to make do with last-century copper wire," Ms Giddings said.

"This situation is just unacceptable, particularly when the federal Liberal Party promised that existing contracts would be honoured."

NBN Co and Mr Turnbull argue the government is rescuing the rollout from virtual collapse and ensuring it is delivered more quickly and more cheaply, with copper wire from the node sufficient for most residential use.