Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed it does. It says that there are grave concerns of the viability of the coalition's plan, not least of which, according to the Citigroup report, is the view expressed that the coalition's fibre-to-the-node network will be obsolete by the time it is built. Not only will it be obsolete, it will also be a colossal waste of taxpayer's money. As Citigroup says, fibre to the node is not an upgrade path to fibre to the home. They say that if the coalition policy is implemented it would simply delay an eventual national fibre-to-the-home build. In other words, the coalition is proposing to spend $16.7 billion on a policy that will be obsolete and will need to be replaced shortly thereafter by a fibre-to-the-home deployment. Those opposite are economically illiterate and technologically illiterate. (Time expired)