This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Australia, which closed in 2021.

Waleed Aly: 'Turnbull Invented The Internet In This Country As Much As I Invented Long-Winded TV Rants'

Waleed Aly: 'Turnbull Invented The Internet In This Country As Much As I Invented Long-Winded TV Rants'

Waleed Aly has ripped into "the guy who invented the internet" -- aka Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull -- over the federal government's delivery of the NBN network in the age of innovation.

In his latest Something We Should Talk About segment, The Project co-host took aim at the delayed rollout of the network which, despite increased costs, will deliver a slower speed than Labor's. But Aly didn't get through the segment without poking fun at his Gold Logie nomination and Tony Abbott's infamous mind blank.

"The Abbott/Turnbull Government has never demonstrated they value the need for high-speed internet, which is ironic because Tony Abbott is the only human to have ever had buffering issues in real life," Aly said.

"Leaked documents seem to reveal the government's NBN rollout is behind schedule and the reason why that is a worry is it's not only that it could be late, but it's an NBN not all of us want."

Under the Labor government, the NBN network was initially meant to be built with fibre connections providing speeds of up to 1 GB per second. But the coalition cut costs when it came to power in 2013, replacing the solely fibre network with copper-based connections to homes.

"First, Malcolm Turnbull invented the internet in this country as much as I invented long-winded TV rants in this country. We didn't invent it but we don't mind accepting praise from people who think we did. Second, his plan might not be as amazing as Tony would have us believe," Aly said.

Before we go on, you can watch the entire take down here:

Aly claimed the technophilic Prime Minister is contradicting himself by rolling out a network with an expiry date during an age of self-proclaimed innovation.

"Instead of having much, much faster broadband, much more quickly and much more affordably, we'll have much slower internet which will cost about $10 billion more but we'll get it one year sooner than Labor. Now, understandably, the guy who set up the company responsible for delivering the NBN is more put out about this than Karl and Lisa were when Lee Lin Chin and I were nominated for a Gold Logie," Aly said.

"But now, as we enter Malcolm Turnbull's age of innovation, and we're told the NBN is the most important infrastructure project of the 21st century, we're expected to rely on a decaying copper network that experts say is already past its use-by date, instead of investing in fibre, which the same experts say could service our internet needs for the next 100 years.

"So if you are watching this right now on the internet, and you had to wait for even a second for this video to buffer, you know who to blame - Tony Abbott and the guy who he says invented the internet."

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Australia. Certain site features have been disabled. If you have questions or concerns, please check our FAQ or contact support@huffpost.com.