Mandatory FTTP Needed!
The issue is being seen from the perspective of cost and not so much for what, ultimately, is better for the country as a whole.
The NBN is one of the largest national infrastructure projects ever undertaken, and is absolutely needed going forward because of one major issue. "Maximizing Shareholder Value".
Telstra own the overwhelming bulk of the cabling connecting households to the communications network, and this puts them in a position of being able to rape the customers wallet each month and return almost nothing to the community (The community are not shareholders, therefore: fuck you community) in the way of jobs (moving overseas) or maintenance to the network (Sorry sir, even though I heard noise in your line, I can't locate the fault with my testing equipment, so fuck you, live with it)
The NBN is all about replacing the aging copper network with a newer, more modern and easier and cheaper to maintain (going forward even though it's a lot of money and work to install) network that will service the country for a long time.
The problem with the politicians are they are generally useless, I can't even think of one who is really worth the money and I would be happy if they all just vanished. They are just attention whores and don't think they are doing their job if they agree with each other, let alone look at the big picture over a greater time period than the next election. Corporate executives are just as bad only they resort to back room dirty deals so they "Maximize Shareholder Value" making the rich people richer and themselves BILLIONS in bonuses.
The NBN's FTTP plan is what is needed to maximize the value to the community as a whole, fuck what Canberra and Telstra want, they don't own Australia, Australians do.