Soon after becoming comms opn spokesman under Abbott's orders to destroy the NBN, Malcolm sat opposite me in his Wentworth offices. When I asked if he would accept a favourable cost-benefit analysis, he said it was "unlikely" it would be &, no, he wouldn't write a "blank cheque". https://twitter.com/TurnbullMalcolm/status/1245996727494041606

Choice quotes from that chat: "The [Gillard Labor] Govt is talking about spending a really stupendous amount of money & our job in the Opposition is to hold them to account. I wasn't elected to look the other way when billions of dollars are potentially being wasted."

On the cost-benefit analysis: "Compare the [options], look at their costs, model their revenues; we have to look at what the financial outcome will be & form a view of any externalities [eg productivity].

"Does that mean 100Mbps or does it mean 12?"

My favourite was Turnbull saying there were no 'killer apps': "What are the applications that require bandwidth of this scale that's being proposed by NBN? If you achieve same benefits with lesser investment (&) less bandwidth to customer that's something to take into account."

Coalition didn't destroy NBN solely on Murdoch orders. That was a positive externality. NBN was a vote-winner in previous election so destroying it was a pathway for Abbott (and Turnbull, who had his own designs) into the Lodge. And it was payback. https://www.itnews.com.au/news/labor-wins-broadband-election-231321

And the man who, according to that great 'Suppository of Wisdom', Tony Abbott, " invented the Internet" in Australia proceeded to destroy our greatest infrastructure project in history. A megalomaniac with a fatal failure of imagination doomed Australia for generations.