NBN costs could top $90 billion: report

NBN costs could top $90 billion: report

AAPUpdated April 8, 2013, 8:48 am

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A business group is urging the federal government to explain the true cost of the national broadband network after claims it could top $90 billion.

The coalition estimates the final price tag of the NBN could more than double to $90 billion-plus, and that it will take an extra four years to complete, News Limited reports.

The claims are made in the coalition’s broadband policy, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, which opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has promised will be released soon.

The Australian Industry Group says the $90 billion figure, if true, is “extraordinarily high” and it wants the government to conduct a rigorous cost-benefit analysis.

“It’s a project that the business community broadly supports, as long as it’s done properly and with the proper costings in place,” AIG boss Innes Willox told ABC radio on Monday.

The government should have conducted a cost-benefit analysis from the beginning, but releasing the true figures now would do no harm, he said.

“It can only instil further public confidence in the rollout of a broadband network which we support,” he said.

Mr Turnbull told The Daily Telegraph that Australia had some of the most expensive communications costs in the developed world.

He criticised the government for handing the network builder, NBN Co, a blank cheque.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy denies the NBN will cost as much as $90 billion, accusing the coalition of running a scare campaign.

The policy was costed every year by the auditor-general’s office, which determined the price tag was $37.4 billion.

Senator Conroy said the coalition was making baseless claims about the NBN.

“They rely on misleading statistics and misleading data to try and make these scare campaigns,” he told ABC radio on Monday.

“What you’ve seen today is a classic policy-free zone claim by the coalition.”
The benefits of the NBN would outweigh the costs, and revenue from the scheme would eventually be paid back to taxpayers, with interest, Senator Conroy said.