Government unveils $3b NBN investment as election attacks ramp up

The federal government will inject $3 billion into the National Broadband Network (NBN) as both major parties ramp up their attack lines ahead of the upcoming election.

Speaking this morning in Canberra, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled a $3 billion equity injection into the NBN to fully upgrade the network by providing a fibre connection to the remaining 622,000 premises that still run on copper.

"The NBN is about productivity, driving the economy, creating jobs," Albanese said.

"It is about how we live our life. It is about telehealth and education services.

"It is absolutely critical to the way that a modern economy and a modern society function.

"That is why we want to not only complete the rollout of fibre-based NBN but importantly as well, we want to keep it in public hands."

The upgrades are forecast to be completed by the end of 2030.

The prime minister accused the opposition of wanting to privatise the network.

"Last year in the House of Representatives, we had a vote in parliament to keep the NBN in public hands and Peter Dutton and the Coalition opposed the vote," he said.

"When the Senate sits again next time, they will have a choice of whether they do support the NBN staying in public hands or whether they will again vote to allow for the NBN to be flogged off to private interests."

That comes as the government and opposition ramp up their attacks on each other with the election approaching.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had accused Albanese of a weak response to antisemitic attacks, as well as crime in general – particularly around the deportation of non-citizens who commit crimes – while also pledging $7.5 million to Crime Stoppers.

"Those people are not being kicked out by the current government and as a result we are seeing an increase in crime across the country," Dutton said.

Albanese said that was a case of the opposition leader being "negative about absolutely everything".

"Peter Dutton will continue as he did yesterday to look for areas of division, to look for areas in which he can try to promote fear in the community," he said.

"It's something he's done his entire political life. What we will do is continue to work with authorities appropriately including, of course, primarily law and order issues."

Dutton also committed to reinstating the requirement for local councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on January 26 should the Coalition win the election.

"Would we reinstate the requirement for councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day? You bet," he said.

"It will be done in the first 100 days and it will be a sign of pride and nationalism in our country."

The election is yet to be called by Albanese, but must be held by late May.