down progress? And will the project ever generate a sufficient return for investors to hop on board and relieve the government and the taxpayer at a good price? Nevertheless, from now until the election Kevin Rudd and the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, have a good news story to tell on broadband. The Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner, even tried to go one step further yesterday, and paint the opposition into a corner with its determination to bin the scheme. Mr Tanner's argument was that the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, would get no joy out of his promise to scrap the project. Because the $26 billion expected to be spent will generate a return, the money comes from the capital account, not from recurrent expenditure. This means ditching the project will not deliver an extra dollar to spend elsewhere. ''Even if he were to commit what I regard as an economically disastrous and foolish act of cancelling this project, he simply does not have a big pile of money to spend,'' Mr Tanner said. 24 comments so far Expect Conroy to be all about the NBN and saying very little about the internet filter between now and the election, hoping to distract everyone from his failings as Comms Minister. Anyone else think lipstick on a pig?? Commenter Greg Location Sydney Date and time May 07, 2010, 8:38AM The" investments" behind the sub prime debacle had tripple A ratings from organisations with reputations as golden as these two consultancies and look whay happened.