• Brian Dalzell
• Parliamentary Library

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16 August 2010While media commentary regarding the Government’s National Broadband Network (NBN) initiative has remained focused on potential gross benefits, expected costs and funding allocations have been a contentious political issue. For example, a considerable amount of time was spent during the 25 May 2010 Senate Environment, Communications and the Arts Legislation Committee Budget Estimates, attempting to match expected costs and announced funding with the funding allocations identified in available budget material.

The importance of costs within the economic context is that they are directly linked to any consideration of net benefit. In the political context, the expected Government funding costs of the NBN must eventually be incorporated into the budget process.

To date, the total expected funding costs of the NBN, while uncertain, do not match the identified funding allocation in the budget measures. This is partly because the full funding allocation for the NBN has been and will continue to be an ongoing process.

Within this setting, the aim of this background note is to inform the reader as to the identified Government funding allocation for the NBN relative to estimated or expected costs of the project, based on all publicly available information at the time of writing.