Scrapped NBN savings unclear: Hockey

Opposition treasury spokesperson, Joe Hockey, says the extent of the coalition's rollback of the national broadband network would depend on when the next election is called.

The coalition says the NBN - which was switched on at the first Australian mainland test site at Armidale in northern NSW on Wednesday - should be scrapped and instead replaced with a cheaper network using a variety of technologies.

Hockey told the National Press Club in Canberra the coalition remained committed to scrapping the NBN.

"When Julia Gillard pressed the button to launch the mainland rollout of the NBN I thought there goes $18 billion," he said.

"From our perspective it does depend on the timing of the election because only then will we know whether contracts have been signed, the form of the contracts and all the costs of unwinding those contracts."

Mr Hockey said it appeared that tenders were failing and prices were not meeting expectations of NBN Co.

"It is clear that what the government expects of the NBN in the rollout is not going to be matched by the actual rollout," he said.

Mr Hockey said the coalition's broadband policy would be cheaper and do a "similar job" to the NBN.

"We've outlined the broadband policy, we've said we will deliver a national broadband policy," he said.

"Today the government is rolling out a Bentley to every Australian - we believe that we can, as a nation, only afford a Commodore at the moment.

"From our perspective it does a very similar job and obviously the Commodore is going to be a lot cheaper for the nation."

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