Critical of Labor’s gung-ho approach to the NBN, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull writes in October 2010:
“Unfortunately for the taxpayer, politicians are particularly prone to making both of them. Attracted to glamorous ribbon-cutting opportunities, politicians love investing taxes in big new projects. And if anyone says ‘cost-benefit analysis’, it is brushed away with a call to ‘nation-building’.”
Fast-forward to 2014. Now in government, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull says of his decision to begin rolling out a ‘Multi-Technology Mix’ model without a cost/benefit analysis:
“The company [NBN] has got to get on.”
Yeah, we’ve got to get on! Unlike Malcolm’s creditability, this NBN isn’t going to trash itself!