Video: Quigley talks the election + Coalition

Renai LeMay
Thursday, 19 August 2010 10:45

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

With the fate of his company hanging in the balance depending on who wins the Federal Election this Saturday, NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley took a range of questions from the media yesterday after a landmark speech slamming the Coalition's broadband policy.

In a speech to the Australian Computer Society in Sydney yesterday afternoon, Quigley stated explicitly that it was 'better to invest $27 billion' '” the amount that the Government expects to invest itself in the NBN '” rather than 'spend $6 billion' as the Coalition is planning to do under its own policy. The full speech - in which Quigley attacked various aspects of the Coalition's statements, including its claim that the NBN is a 'white elephant' - can be found in full online.

Quigley said on Saturday night he would be doing what 'probably most people in Australia will be doing - watching the election'.

'With some interest,' he chuckled.

The executive said he had not met directly with the Coalition on a contingency plan if Labor loses the election and the NBN project is scrapped - apart from occasions when he took questions directly from Opposition senators in the regular Senate Estimates Committee hearings.