Scott Harrison
Scott is an IT professional and father who is passionate about free speech, religious freedom, and parental rights.
A leaflet from iiNet arrived in my mailbox last week, offering six months free internet if I switch from my current provider. Normally, I’d welcome such competition-driven deals, but there’s nothing normal about this offer. It’s the desperate plea of a private company trying to compete against a taxpayer-funded monopoly that can offer services at below cost indefinitely.
I’m currently with Aussie Broadband under the School Student Broadband Initiative, getting nearly $3,000 worth of ‘free’ internet until June 2028. iiNet knows they’re competing against government handouts, so they’re burning private capital trying to match what taxpayers fund. It’s not sustainable, and it’s not fair competition – it’s market manipulation designed to destroy competition.
TPG’s recent accusations against NBN Co have torn the mask off Labor’s telecommunications strategy. The telco giant accused government-owned NBN of spending $6,600 per premise to ‘overbuild’ existing private networks in Canberra – essentially using taxpayer money to duplicate infrastructure that already works perfectly well.
Any rational government would celebrate this innovation and focus resources elsewhere.
Think about that for a moment. TPG’s Vision Network already delivers up to 1Gbps speeds to Canberra residents through existing fibre infrastructure. It was built with private capital, operates commercially, and provides the exact service NBN claims to offer. Yet NBN Co spent $640 million of our money building a parallel government network covering the same territory.
TPG’s Andrew O’Connor summarised the madness: “It costs over $6,500 to get an NBN service up and running over there, which just seems massive in terms of cost, when there’s already a network that is running and providing speeds of up to 1Gbps.”
NBN’s excuse involves backyard power poles and rocky terrain – legitimate challenges that private companies factor into investment decisions. But government monopolies don’t face such constraints. They simply demand more taxpayer funding, secure in the knowledge that political promises matter more than economic reality.
The Canberra controversy exposes Labor’s broader strategy: eliminate private telecommunications infrastructure and create complete government control over Australia’s internet backbone. Private companies will be tolerated only as retail service providers, reselling government wholesale access like glorified shop fronts.
This isn’t speculation. Every policy decision points toward monopoly. NBN’s ‘free’ fibre upgrades regardless of need. The Regional Broadband Scheme that taxes private competitors eight dollars per month to subsidise NBN’s losses. Cross-subsidies hidden in complex regulatory structures that penalise efficiency and reward political compliance.
Most revealing is NBN’s plan to launch low earth orbit satellites to compete directly with Starlink. Elon Musk delivered a superior satellite internet service that customers prefer over NBN’s obsolete Sky Muster system. Any rational government would celebrate this innovation and focus resources elsewhere. Instead, NBN Co wants taxpayers funding a space race against the world’s most successful entrepreneur.
Labor’s satellite decision destroys any pretence that NBN exists to fix ‘market failure’. If private enterprise delivers better satellite internet than government, where’s the market failure? The only failure is government’s inability to accept that competitive markets might work better than political control.
It’s not sustainable, and it’s not fair competition – it’s market manipulation designed to destroy competition.
Prime Minister Albanese’s promise to keep NBN “in public hands forever” guarantees this distortion will continue indefinitely. There’s no commercial discipline, no exit strategy, and no competitive pressure to improve. Just endless taxpayer bailouts – the latest being $3.8 billion announced in January – for a monopoly that consistently delivers inferior outcomes at higher costs.
The human cost appears in my internet bill and every Australian household paying the broadband tax. Private companies like iiNet built superior networks using private capital and commercial risk. They deserve to compete on merit, not government’s ability to print money and manipulate regulations.
When iiNet offers me six months free internet, it’s not celebration-worthy innovation. It’s a warning sign that competitive telecommunications markets are being systematically destroyed by a government determined to control every aspect of Australia’s digital infrastructure.
TPG deserves credit for calling out this overbuilding scandal. Their willingness to challenge the 900-pound gorilla of NBN shows there’s still fight left in Australia’s private sector. But they’re fighting a rigged game where government sets the rules, funds the competition, and defines success through political rather than economic metrics.
Labor’s NBN monopoly march continues, one overbuild at a time.
This article was originally published by Liberty Itch.
