Malcolm Turnbull has said he is “keenly aware” of the pain some customers are experiencing with the national broadband network NBN, but he is “absolutely on top” of the issue.
The prime minister was forced to defend the NBN this week after a parliamentary committee handed down a scathing report into the project following a year-long investigation, calling for more transparency and accountability for those with complaints.
Turnbull, who had control over the project while he was communications minister, said it was “in hand”, and many of the complaints were the responsibility of the telcos who use the network.
“We are absolutely on top of this and I am talking to the management all the time, as is the minister [for communications] Mitch Fifield,” he told radio 3AW on Friday. “What they are doing is ensuring Australians get the internet speeds that have been promised by the retailers.
“The problem is very much a matter with the retailers who are not buying enough capacity from NBN and other providers to deliver the service speeds they are promising.”
Turnbull said a centralised body to help customers navigate who to blame when things went wrong was not necessarily the answer.
“It is complex, there are aspects of the service that are delivered by NBN as a wholesaler, but the customer deals with the retailers – say Telstra or Optus – and there are major parts of that network that [are] provided by the retailers,” he said.
“The NBN is responsible for providing the wholesale access from your house to the exchange. Beyond that, it is in the hands of Telstra or Optus or whatever.”
A spokesman for Telstra said speeds “vary due to quite a large number of factors”.
“Some of these factors are managed by retail service providers like Telstra. Others are designed and controlled by NBN,” he said. “We want our customers to have the best possible network experience on the NBN and we’re careful to purchase the right level of bandwidth to support speeds.”
A spokesman for Optus said only: “As an industry we are going to have to adapt to the NBN and work together to ensure its success.”
Labor’s communications spokeswoman, Michelle Rowland, was more direct.
“Not only is the prime minister delivering a network that costs more and does less, but he is creating an unforgivable digital divide with his flawed multi-technology mix,” she said in a statement, which included what she said were the “failures” of the project under a Coalition government, including reports of slower speeds and connection issues.
“He should at least have the humility to accept his NBN failures, and get on with the job of fixing them.”
The joint standing committee looking into the NBN roll-out and the service itself made 23 recommendations on how it could be improved.
But five of the six government MPs on the committee signed a dissenting report, rejecting many of the criticisms of the NBN and the recommendations.
Nationals MP Andrew Broad was the only government committee member not to sign the dissenting report, telling Guardian Australia he believed some of the recommendations had merit.
