Malcolm Turnbull’s NBN is a shambolic mess, not just for consumers struggling for a connection, but also for the workers forced to deal with the disaster, the Communications Union said today.
CEPU communications division national president Shane Murphy said a 4 Corners program that aired last night revealed how the Turnbull Government’s poor handling of the project has led to a myriad of problems, both for consumers and workers.
‘The NBN was meant to be a critical piece of nation building infrastructure, but at the moment it’s nothing more than a national embarrassment,’ Mr Murphy said.
‘The NBN had the potential to be a world-class network and provide jobs and training opportunities for workers to develop new skills. Instead, we’ve ended up in a situation where we’ve got frustrated customers on a shonky network being held together with plastic bags and ringbarked cables.
‘This is Turnbull’s NBN – a national joke.
‘The prime minister can try to handball the blame all he likes, but the reality is this mess is all his making. We warned this government that this was coming, but the prime minister refused to listen.
‘We’ve got thousands of subcontractors who are given no proper training and are being squeezed by principal contractors who are making billions at the taxpayer’s expense.
‘This government’s flawed approach to this key infrastructure project is enabling that behaviour.
‘Not only has the prime minister failed to deliver on his promises to deliver a better NBN faster and cheaper, he has failed the workforce by allowing the biggest pyramid sham contracting scheme the country has ever seen to flourish throughout the industry.’
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