Australian PM under fire for cost blowout of national broadband network

The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is under fire after a report found the government's new national internet service, which he championed, may need to be completely refurbished.

In his former post as minister for communications, Turnbull was charged with rolling out the lion's share of the previous Labor government's 580 million U.S. dollar National Broadband Network (NBN), billed to bring Australia's dated communications service into the 21st century.

On Thursday, a leaked report surfaced suggesting the NBN's Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC), which the government acquired from telecommunication giant Optus, may need to be ripped up and replaced.

The document, dated Nov. 3, stated the cost of doing so would be in the vicinity of 272 million U.S. dollars.

Nearly 600,000 Australian homes may now have to wait until 2019, at the earliest, to receive the NBN, the report obtained by Fairfax Media read.

The Labor government immediately launched an attack on the prime minister, who had watered down the original NBN policy opting by abandoning the high-priced fibre optic technology, saying Turnbull's NBN strategy was costly and "second-rate."

"It reveals that the Optus HFC network, a key component of Malcolm Turnbull's second-rate NBN, is in far worse condition than Australians were led to believe," Opposition Communications spokesman Jason Clare told News Corp on Thursday.

"NBN Co is considering overbuilding the network -- costing hundreds of millions and meaning hundreds of thousands of Australians will have to wait longer to get the NBN."

The Optus HFC was due to link 470,000 Australians into the NBN as part of "Plan A."

But the document, marked "confidential", advised that the network was "not fully fit for purpose" and recommended moving to "Plan B," a complete overhaul of the system.

Last year, Turnbull originally said the deal with Optus would not cost the Australian public a cent.

"The agreement allows NBN Co to take progressive ownership of the Optus HFC cable network and use this infrastructure in the NBN rollout, at no additional cost to taxpayers," Turnbull said in December. Endit