The NBN Co's latest attempt to put lipstick on a pig — the animal in this case being the network it is building and the make-up in question being speed — goes one step further than the "alternative facts" which its former chief executive, Bill Morrow, used to dish out.

As Australians continue to make do with a half-baked broadband service, New Zealand has indicated that it would be reducing prices for its ultra-fast broadband services as it announced that half a million had taken up the service.

The Australian Labor Party has described the national broadband network as being on "life support" with the announcement on Friday that the total outlay would be $51 billion, compared to the earlier figure of $49 billion, described as "a cost blowout" that was "nothing short of a disaster".