Henderson takes issue with NBN comments

THE National Broadband Network (NBN) is to be switched on in Torquay and Jan Juc by June, but questions are being asked about the network’s overall pace, cost and internet speeds.
The latest criticism was aired last week on Channel 10 program The Project, but one of the claims made by host Waleed Aly has been rejected by Corangamite federal member Sarah Henderson.
In his “Something We Should Talk About” segment on Wednesday, Aly gave an overview of the changes to the NBN rollout, including Labor’s original plan and the Coalition’s switch after winning the election. Labour intended to roll out fiber to the premises (FTTP) to 93 per cent of the population but the Coalition opted for a Multi-Technology Mix some FTTP.
Ms Henderson – who can coincidentally be seen in the segment standing behind then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott – took exception to Aly’s remarks on Twitter on Wednesday night, and explained herself further on Monday. “He got it wrong; he said that Labor’s plan was “What I wanted to remind Waleed on The Project wireless to any town of 1,000 residents or less.”
Aly said the Coalition had turned the NBN into a “political football” and was highly critical of the changes to the network.
“So now, instead of being (in Mr Abbott’s words) ‘much, much faster broadband, much more quickly and much more affordably’, we’ll have much slower internet, which will cost about $10 billion more (than Labor’s original $45 billion estimate), but we’ll get it one year sooner than Labor.”
There have been a series of leaks from NBN Co in recent months, revealing delays to the MTM rollout FTTP model.