Senator Conroy’s claim today that refusal to embrace Labor’s reckless $43 billion NBN adventure equals opposition to better and faster broadband is ridiculous.

We all want to see better, faster, more affordable broadband; the question is how that is best achieved.

But to claim, as Labor does, that the only road to that destination is one that costs $43 billion with taxpayers owning the risk, is transparently absurd.

In the world of Conroy, anyone that questions Labor’s chaotic and reckless NBN or refuses to join them on their ill conceived adventure must be a broadband non-believer who should presumably be burnt at the stake.

None of the Conroy babble can hide the fact that after two and a half years, Labor’s only broadband outcome has been to prevent 900,000 under-served households from receiving better and more affordable broadband through the cancellation of the previous Coalition Government’s OPEL contract.

After wasting 18 months and $30 million on its first NBN tender which failed to clear the tower, these under-served households are left stranded on a promise of something in eight years time, when they would have received upgraded broadband services by last Christmas.

The Coalition believes there are better ways to drive a comprehensive upgrade of Australia’s broadband infrastructure both nationally and in under-served areas.

The Coalition will be looking to implement a very different, responsible and targeted approach that will be designed to deliver better, affordable, reliable broadband services where they are needed without a reckless waste of taxpayer’s funds, as well as encouraging the private sector to upgrade broadband infrastructure.