Secret figures have revealed in 2013 the Liberal-National Government knew Labor’s Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) plan could be deployed significantly cheaper, contradicting their ridiculous and deceptive public statements. As exposed in a recent report:

“Savings worth $850 to $1150 were estimated to be achievable for each existing home attached with fibre under the radically redesigned plan. These savings included the use of more cost-efficient network architecture and materials worth $300 to $450 per home or business, a further $50 to $100 from cost-efficient construction techniques and $500 to $600 from increased labour productivity.

However, sources with knowledge of the NBN Co’s business operations say cost efficiency improvements were already happening in 2013 and would have been introduced without a radical redesign.

If the lowest level of estimated savings was applied to homes in the existing full fibre rollout at the time, peak funding could have been reduced from $73 billion to about $60 billion. Interest rates associated with the debt were estimated at a relatively high 6.9 per cent by 2024. A further $5 billion to $6 billion in savings may then have been achievable due to lower debt overall and with interest rates below 4 per cent.”

These figures indicate the cost of Labor’s original Fibre to the Premises rollout would be between $15 billion to $19 billion cheaper than the Liberals have claimed.

Furthermore, today’s report indicates the cost per households for FTTP was between $2,950 and $3,250 — squarely in the range experts always said it would be.

For nearly a decade, the Liberals have claimed Labor’s original fibre rollout would have cost $72 billion. However, this recent report shows they were making these claims in the full knowledge this figure was a hoax.

The Government’s own secret figures show a full-fibre rollout to 93 per cent of Australians could have been delivered for nearly $53 billion.

The cost of the Liberals’ copper-dominated mess is now forecast at $57 billion, and it will have higher operating and capital costs for decades to come.

By engaging in this grand deception, the Liberals have put politics above people and robbed Australians of a first-rate fibre NBN.

Worse still, they have deployed a dud copper NBN that is nearly $30 billion over budget, delivers slower speeds and is less reliable.