Scrap NBN for Queensland recovery: Abbott
- — 18 January, 2011 15:38
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has called on the government to scrap its multi-billion dollar National Broadband Network (NBN) to help fund the Queensland flood recovery.
With the damage bill for the recovery effort estimated to run into the billions of dollars, Mr Abbott called for government expenditure to be "reprioritised ", starting with the costly NBN.
Taxpayers are investing $27.5 billion in the telecommunications project, which will deliver high speed internet services to households across Australia.
"It is time for the government to stop spending on unnecessary projects so that it can start spending on unavoidable projects such as the reconstruction that will be needed in Queensland," he told reporters in Sydney.
"It can start with the National Broadband Network.
"The National Broadband Network is a luxury that Australia cannot now afford. The one thing you don't do is redo your bathroom when your roof has just been blown off."
Mr Abbott said unspent funds under the government's stimulus package, and the money devoted to initiatives such as the "cash for clunkers" election promise, should be diverted to the flood recovery.
Queenslanders should not be taxed to fund the rebuilding effort, he said.
"There are a whole range of unnecessary spending programs that the government needs to look at," he said.
"It should not be found via a new tax.
"The people of Queensland have suffered enough, they shouldn't have to suffer higher taxes as well."
Mr Abbott welcomed Prime Minister Julia Gillard's announcement that she would set up a business task force to help the Queensland recovery.
Ms Gillard has decided to bring together 10 Australian leading business people to form a business round table to assist with corporate support as Queensland recovers and rebuilds from the floods.
"I think that there is a lot of expertise in corporate Australia that governments at all levels could all draw on," he said.
Comments
The Hammburger
Tue 18/01/2011 - 16:50
Actually Tony, you do NOT disconnect your phone when your roof blows off...Unless you know how to build your own roof.
Nice try...
SpiderDan
Tue 18/01/2011 - 19:36
Seeing as a fair bit of telecommunications infrestructrue has been damaged in the floods. Rather than spend excessively on repairing the old infrestructure only to rip it out in a couple of years to make way for the NBN, would it not be better to fast-track the NBN build in the flood affected areas of Qld and Vic? No?
1swiftone
Wed 19/01/2011 - 07:20
I saw this coming last week. He is such a Luddite and a very useless government expenditure, I think we should scrap his and his associates wages and tip them into the flood rebuilding funds.
Dennis
Wed 19/01/2011 - 07:45
So we scrap the NBN which will be for all australians to give the money to one state? Not very smart.
Sorry QLD i know you need all the help you can to get back on your feet but 10 years from now we wont be talking about the floods but about how crap our network is.
Mitch
Wed 19/01/2011 - 11:10
Brisbane resident here...
and i think this is a terrible idea, while there is a fair amount of cleanup to be completed the floods are no reason to stop building infrastructure which the entire country will benefit from.
News outlets need to stop giving this guy air time he's only doing it for the attention.
Anthony
Wed 19/01/2011 - 11:51
How about we scrap negative gearing and put that towards the Queensland flood recovery. There's no return on that either.
singo79
Wed 19/01/2011 - 19:51
I think that SpiderDan hit the nail on the head. Rather then throw good money after bad, the Government, the NBN and Telstra should be getting together to start replacing all of the damaged infrastructure with new assets that the NBN was eventually going to install.
Everyone agrees that QLD needs our help and support, so lets give them that, but we should not sacrifice such and important project such as the NBN in order to focus all of our attention on one state and only a portion of the Australian population.
Fony Tony is an absolute F&ckwit! In fact I am starting to get news rage from all of these news agencies giving this prick air time and polluting his bigoted views across the airwaves.
Once again Fony Tony is using a tragic disaster where people have lost their homes and loved ones into political gain. I am absolutely disgusted that he has stooped this low and that the media condones his insulting behavior by airing and publishing his comments.
gizzt
Wed 19/01/2011 - 23:23
The take-home message I got from this article is:
Abbott is now abusing the flood victims in QLD to try and stop the NBN from being built for their own political gain.
Kevin
Fri 21/01/2011 - 00:59
Abbott's ears may be large but that does not reflect what is between them.
Fact is the opposition has very little understanding of today's communications.
Fact. Turnbull made monumentally bad decisions when he owned Ozemail by trying to create a proprietary online service which iiNet bought for a song.
Fact. The Libs, when in power, hire that looney Mexican who sent Telstra down the wrong path placing all it's eggs into 3G when they were already geared up to lay optic fibre.
Fact. The mess they created with digital TV and radio creating confusion in both industries.
Abbott, rotary phones are no longer state of the art.
James
Tue 18/01/2011 - 16:01
What a luddite Tony Abbott is.
He's opposed the NBN from day one, and now he's just using the floods to push his backward agenda. Anyone with a modicum of sense well knows that stopping the NBN in it's tracks now would have a miniscule effect on money available for the rebuilding of Queensland. While large in dollar terms, the Govt investment in the NBN is miniscule when looked at alongside the budget overall. In the same time we will spend $27bn on the NBN, we'll throw $1Tr at health, $500bn and education and $220bn at defence. And get none of it back. Meanwhile, the $27bn to the NBN will not only deliver us a world-class network, but return the investment back after completion.
The long term benefits to business (and therefore the economy) of the network are well understood by anyone outside of the conservative side of politics. Surely, Abbott must wonder why every large and small business group, every internet provider, and the vast majority of IT companies are giving such strong public support to this project, yet none have backed his tin-and-string alternative plan?