Opposition Communications Spokesperson Jason Clare has questioned the independence of a panel responsible for a new report that suggests the Coalition's NBN network would be more cost effective than Labor's plan.
The first cost-benefit analysis of Australia's largest infrastructure project considered the estimated costs and benefits of greater access to broadband from 2015 to 2040.
The report, comissioned by Malcolm Turnbull, found the Coalition's NBN would leave Australians $16 billion better off.
"The approach we’re taking is $16 billion better, that's to say Australians are $16 billion better off," he said.
But Opposition Communications Spokesman Jason Clare said the report should not be taken seriously because it was compiled by people critical of the NBN and connected to Mr Turnbull.
In a statement today, Mr Clare said Mr Turnbull had "hand-picked former staff and some of the most vociferous critics of the NBN" to do the cost-benefit analysis instead of Infrastructure Australia.
Speaking to the ABC, he said the panel - led by former Victorian Treasury head Michael Vertigan - was not independent.
"You have to question veracity of their conclusions," he said.
When pressed about his accusations of bias he conceded it was only some members he was referring to.
He accused Mr Turnbull of breaking a pre-election promise for an independent cost-benefit analysis of the plan.
Mr Clare said the report would cause division inside the Coalition because of its references to regional and rural areas.
"What this report says is 'don't roll out NBN to bush,' [and] that path would cause civil war inside the coalition," he said.
The report was critical of Labor’s plan for fibre to the premises (FTTP) model and said the Coalition’s "multi-technology mix" model was more economically sound, Fairfax Media reports.
It said Labor’s FTTP plan would cost $35.3 billion to launch from 2015 compared with the Coalition’s model at $24.9 billion.
The report favoured an unsubsidised rollout of fast broadband to 93 per cent of homes, leaving 7 per cent of homes in rural and regional areas without high-speed broadband.
It said providing fast broadband to the bush would cost almost $5 billion and have little economic benefit.
The panel responsible for the report also included former Australian Communications Authority chairman Tony Shaw, economist Henry Ergas and former eBay Australia managing director, Alison Deans.
- With AAP
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