1.5 MILLION HOMES AND BUSINESSES TO GAIN ACCESS TO NBN FIBRE UNDER LABOR

An Albanese Labor Government will secure more Australian families and businesses quality, high speed internet by expanding full-fibre NBN access to 1.5 million premises. 

Under Labor, 90 per cent of Australians in the fixed line footprint — over 10 million premises — will have access to world-class gigabit speeds by 2025. 

Labor will also keep the NBN in public hands, keeping internet costs for families affordable while ensuring improvements to the network. 

Reliable, quality, high speed internet is not a luxury or a nice-to-have. It is essential 21st century infrastructure. 

Labor’s expansion will particularly benefit regional Australia, which has been left behind by the Morrison-Joyce Government, by providing up to 660,000 additional homes and business in our regions with access to optical fibre. 

Families need reliable, fast connections for school and work, small businesses and entrepreneurs need it to stay competitive, regional communities need it for all those reasons, and as a matter of safety. 

Our plan will give Australians who now rely on copper wire connections the choice of having fibre connected directly into their homes if they want a faster NBN speed than their copper can deliver. 

In additional to powering the digital economy, our plan will create 12,000 jobs for construction workers, engineers and project managers in our regions and in our suburbs. 

For nearly a decade, the Liberal and Nationals’ oversight of the NBN has been a masterclass in technological incompetence and mismanagement causing Australia to trail behind other developed countries, slipping to 59th in the world on average broadband speeds. 

The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison management of the NBN has been a drag on our economy. It has undermined the competitiveness of small businesses and left our health care and education sectors reliant on patchy, outdated technology. 

The LNP’s decision to abandon the original vision of the NBN and instead rollout of second-rate technology has suffered multiple cost blowouts and delays and, as it stands, is $28 billion over budget. 

Labor believes that the next decade should be one where Australia makes thing here again. A key element of our Future Made in Australia plan is a reliable, high speed NBN that will allow Australia to seize on the economic opportunities before us. 

Australians can and should expect to have access to world-leading internet speeds to keep us connected to each other and to the world. 

But Australians cannot trust Scott Morrison to deliver that future. 

They need an Albanese Labor Government with the plans and foresight to make that promise a reality.