Rubenerd

Forgive the link to a paywall, but the opening summary of this article in The Australian newspaper is amazing:

THE former Labor government’s decision to pursue a fibre-to-the-home, super-fast, broadband network would have a net cost to taxpayers of $22.2 billion, but the Coalition’s model still leaves them paying billions to deliver access to the bush and urban fringes, a landmark cost-benefit analysis reveals.

Yeah, damn those people who don't live in cities. Don't they know how selfish their rural lifestyle is?

The Coalition-commissioned analysis

A government-commissioned analysis on the people they replaced.

[..] finds the expense of providing high-speed internet access to people who live in uncommercial rural and regional areas, as well as urban fringes, would cost nearly $5bn but the benefits are only a fraction of that.

It's why we only have electricity to the node. The only thing consumers use (and will ever use) power for is heating, stoves and light; and those are already serviced by our extensive natural gas network.