Why would the senior management be worried about the LNP ?
Their job after all is to build it and not concern themselves about partisan politics, from either side.
You've presented some good and thought provoking arguments supporting this project, but this to me is not one of them. In terms of scale, the Great Eastern was a world first as was the French attempt to build the Panama Canal.
Donning a bi-partisan hat for a moment, I hope Labor have got it right as I prefer not to see taxpayers money wasted. What ultimately worries me though is the balance between the vision and critical financial anlaysis.
Because they have been attacked politically by the LNP. The whole NBN rollout has been politicised. Question the project itself yes, but don't attack the integrity of the people doing the work.
Maybe I have a bias since I work in the IT world, but I also have direct experience with just how worn out the current copper network is. To me doing nothing is not an option, because most of Asia and the USA and the emerging world will overtake us in the next 10-15 years.
The LNP FTTN to me is a huge waste of money, and there is so little detail provided by them. I can understand you can't give a fully costed plan, but they should be able to provide a summary of:
* how many nodes
* will the nodes require aircon or have milspec equipment able to handle 70 deg temps
* maximum cable length
* number of wireless base stations and locations that they will support
* what contractual negotiations they will need to undertake with Telstra
* What issues they think the ACCC will raise
I would argue that the LNP FTTN network would be a huge waste of money as it would have little economic value for the tax payer, would require endless subsidies in rural areas, and will most likely entrench Telstra as the dominant force for decades.
From everything I've been able to find out about how the project is running, it has a highly competent group of people managing the broad scope of the project, along with competent levels below them ensuring the day to day operations are running well.
If anything the ALP are to be applauded for letting the NBN get on with the job and not micro managing them and getting in the road of the people who know what they're doing and how best to achieve results.
I would argue that so far the number of people signing up to the higher end plans is boding well for the NBNs finances. If the trend continues it looks like the project will be able to pay off the debt faster and / or drop prices faster than currently planned, due to the higher ARPU being earned. SMEs in Willunga were taking up the 100/40 plans because of the minimal price difference to lower speed plans, and the fact they can do everything instantly now. I can see it revolutionising things in the home user space, but to me the truly outstanding feature of the NBN will be to provide the SME market with broadband access that has really been only in the realm of the largest of companies due to the cost and limited areas it is offered. If the SME community is not saving a couple of billion a year on their communications (broadband and phone) by the time the NBN is completed, then they seriously need to hire some decent IT staff or bring in a consultant to show them where they're going wrong.