Australia’s rank drops from 30th to 60th for global internet speeds

When Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was asked by an audience member on Monday night's Q&A on ABC to clearly explain whether or not his party will be future proofing its NBN, which relies heavily on obsolete copper technology, all Turnbull had was the now stock-standard response senior party members like Christopher Pyne and Barnaby Joyce have delivered time and again.

PM blamed the former Labor party for the country's NBN woes claiming their planned system had "ground to a halt in many parts of Australia".

Turnbull's claims over the Coalition's much-maligned NBN roll-out has come under increasing pressure as a new report revealed that Australia has significantly dropped in the global ranks for internet speeds.

After three years of the new government, Australia has dropped on the global scale for internet speeds from 30th to 60th. Data provided to the ABC's Fact Check claims that the Coalition's policy of rolling out fibre to the node technology rather than fibre directly to people's homes is the likely cause of the decline.

In 2013, Labor's NBN promised download speeds of 1 Gbps through an innovative fibre optics network linked directly to people's homes, on par with international standards.

However, the Coalition's version which relies heavily on outdated copper wiring, won't be completed until 2020 and will only provide download speeds of 25 Mbps, well below the global average.

Countries like the UK and Germany are already in the process of replacing parts of their networks with fibre directly to the home to ensure their systems are capable of meeting future demands.