The Australian newspaper today reports on the NBN Company's false, misleading and deceptive shareholder minister Stephen Conroy.

THE Coalition has accused senior Labor ministers of a "flagrant falsehood" by claiming that connection to the National Broadband Network is free, and is demanding the competition watchdog force NBN Co to change the way it reports on its construction rollout.

The Australian also has obtained a letter that Mr Turnbull has written to Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims, in which he takes aim at the Prime Minister and other ministers for claiming NBN connections are free.

Mr Turnbull's letter cites a brochure printed and authorised by Labor MP Jenny Macklin as well as Ms Gillard's Facebook page.

"Connection is not free," Mr Turnbull writes in the letter. "To be connected a consumer must enter into an agreement with a retail service provider for the latter to provide service. This, without exception, entails financial commitments that typically include initial fees and/or monthly service charges incurred over a contractually specified period."

But a spokesman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy labelled Mr Turnbull's claims "a desperate distraction tactic" to hide the contention that homes would have to pay thousands of dollars to get a fibre connection under the Liberals' NBN plan. "Our statement that connection is free is not new. NBN Co (has been saying so on its) website for some time now," the spokesman said.

"We have been upfront from the start; we are delivering the NBN to all households with no connection cost for a standard installation because we believe everyone deserves access to fast, reliable broadband, not just those who can afford up to $5000."

The ACCC is unlikely to respond to Mr Turnbull's claims of misleading practices as political statements are not covered by the Competition and Consumer Act.

Here's how the ACCC once dealt with companies that offered free stuff that on closer examination of the bill turned out to be not so free

The ACCC will probably make allowances for the sheltered workshop leadership in the Gillard shareholder ministry.

It's almost as if there is a real world of laws, external factors like the cost of capital, environmental concerns like deadly asbestos fibres and generally accepted principles like telling the truth.

Then there is the extreme Conroy/Gillard/Swan et al fantasyland where a $50 billion NBN makes sense and it's free.

Those of us who practiced in selling phone calls, faxes, email services and moving pictures on computers remember well The Dude from One Tel.   One Tel's business plan involved re-selling services for less than it cost OneTel to purchase them.   OneTel didn't do that for very long.

Here are, respectively, OneTel's and NBN's dudes - both are hipsters (red Bonds 36 in Conroy's case) who are poor at arithmetic.           

And here is our report of Gillard's NBN-for-free ads, our report to the ACCC, the ACCC's reply to us and our general mood that surely to God someone will pull the plug on this mob soon.

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2013/04/this-is-from-julia-gillards-own-official-facebook-page-everything-you-need-to-know-about-labors-atti.html

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2013/04/stephen-conroy-and-the-free-connections-free-handsets-free-broadband-ive-asked-the-accc-for-an-opini.html

http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2013/05/the-accc-says-the-governments-broadband-business-is-not-a-business-after-all.html?cid=6a0177444b0c2e970d017eeaf672a2970d