Actually, the first mistake is saying the NBN was Rudd's idea. The problem was created by the Libs in 1997, when they privatised a government monopoly, Telstra

Actually, the first mistake is saying the NBN was Rudd's idea. The problem was created by the Libs in 1997, when they privatised a government monopoly, Telstra. Telstra promptly morphed into natural shape of private monopolies everywhere: a bloody great rent seeker, beholden to no one. They sat on the existing copper network assets, milking them for all their were worth and showing not the slightest interest investing to upgrade the asset when new technologies arrived. (The contrast with their actions in the mobile sector, where they didn't have a monopoly could not be more stark. We have a world class mobile network, and were the first to phase out 2G.) 10 years later, the prime minster who created this mess was still in power. It was only 10 years later, but by then it was obvious even to him something had to be done because we had this headline: “Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Monday announced a 2.0 billion dollar (1.68 billion US) plan to provide fast and affordable Internet access across the vast country”. http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/n/2007/06/18/1182018999327.html http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/n/2007/06/18/118201899... Notice this was several years before Rudd "had" the same idea. Turned out 1.68 billion was a bit of an underestimate, so it went nowhere. We've are now spending 20 times that amount to extract ourselves from the mess he created. I do hope the $14B they earned from the sale of Telstra (which is several times less than the cost of the fix) was worth it at the time.