Victoria cold on NBN opt-out: report

Connections should be optional, Premier says.

Victoria’s new Government has reportedly rejected plans by its Labor predecessor to make residents “opt-out” of a connection of NBN fibre from the street to their houses.

The state’s former Labor Government had pledged to follow Tasmania’s lead in legislating so-called “opt-out” provisions should it have won last month’s election.

But in an interview with The Australian, Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu reportedly said he thought that NBN connections “ought to be optional”.

Tasmania was the first state to put the onus on residents to decline having NBN fibre rolled from the street to their homes, rather than have to sign a consent form to allow NBN Co to make the connection.

Premier David Bartlett said at the time of his state’s opt-out push that he wanted Tasmania to “be the most connected place on the planet by 2014”.

Tasmania's push followed criticism over the number of homes and businesses in first-release sites to have the NBN connected from the street to their premises.

Federal Labor consistently maintained that such sign-up rates were high.