Salesmanship wins despite lesser product
With production-grade lighting and a slick digital backdrop, this was not your average election policy launch. This was a Tony Abbott media event with a little bit of Steve Jobs-type salesmanship.
But the big question at Fox Sport studios in Sydney seemed to be: were Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull overcompensating for something?
After all, the Opposition Leader and the man he christened his future "Mr Broadband" were there to talk about copper - not gold.
Copper wires - which, they insist, will deliver broadband speeds that future Australians will expect at a third of the price of Labor's gold-plated national broadband network.
"Fast, affordable, sooner," the luminous backdrop reassured.
Abbott, who is the pre-eminent practitioner of the simple, chewable message, promised internet speeds 10 times faster than today by 2019 and "two-thirds" cheaper than Labor's whole-hog fibre-to-the-premises project.
Abbott and Turnbull claim they will do it for $60 billion less than the current NBN will end up costing.
"Rubbish!" yelled Stephen Conroy, who had a strong point but was left looking like yesterday's man as he fed NBN cable into a Telstra-owned hole in suburban Canberra.
Conroy was wearing a fluoro vest and had to make do with natural lighting.
It's quite a feat that team Abbott could present itself as the tech-savvy combination when it was the Communications Minister who was putting futuristic cable into the ground. Fibre that would turn Australia into one of the leading nations on earth for internet infrastructure - something the Coalition is not offering.
It's just the latest example of the government having something to sell but getting T-boned by the opposition's PR juggernaut.
Abbott is well aware that "Mr Broadband" is more popular than he is, but he seemed content to let Turnbull take centre stage.
He had little choice but to take a back seat once the Q&A with tech sector journalists turned to topics like "VDSL2+, with vectoring".
But the duo largely got away with it despite hawking an inferior product.
Imagine Julia Gillard trying to do an election event with Kevin Rudd.
Frequently Asked Questions about this Article…
At the media event Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull promoted a copper-based broadband plan, saying it would deliver 'fast, affordable, sooner' internet — claiming speeds 10 times faster than today by 2019 and costs two‑thirds cheaper than Labor’s fibre-to-the-premises approach.
The article describes their launch as a slick, media-savvy production with production-grade lighting and a digital backdrop — likening the salesmanship to a Steve Jobs-style performance and calling it a PR juggernaut.
The Coalition advocated using upgraded copper (mentioned technologies like VDSL2+ with vectoring) to boost speeds. The article characterises that offering as an 'inferior product' compared with Labor’s fibre plan, even though the Coalition sold it effectively.
They claimed their copper-based plan would be around two-thirds cheaper than Labor’s full fibre rollout and said they could deliver it for about $60 billion less than what the current NBN is expected to cost.
Stephen Conroy dismissed the Coalition’s claims — reportedly yelling 'Rubbish!' — and was shown actively installing NBN cable in suburban Canberra, a contrast the article used to highlight the government’s ongoing fibre rollout.
The article argues that strong PR and polished presentation allowed the Coalition to gain the upper hand publicly despite promoting a technologically lesser solution, showing that messaging can shape perception even when the product may be inferior.
The article suggests fibre-to-the-premises would make Australia a world leader in internet infrastructure and indicates the Coalition's copper-based plan is not offering that level of long-term infrastructure, even if it is pitched as cheaper and quicker.
The piece mentions Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull as the Coalition presenters, Stephen Conroy as Communications Minister defending the NBN, and references Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd in passing. For investors, these figures matter because their policy positions and how they communicate them can influence telecom projects, infrastructure decisions and public expectations.
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