Currently only about 15% percent of Australia has access to NBN. While governments of all sides quibble about money we keep slipping in the world standings. I’m pretty sure we are actually worse off than mexico.
Nobody quibbled about investing in the railways in the 19th century. Nobody has worried about investing in the internet, either, in EVERY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. It really is ridiculous.
The fact is that the upgrades required to copper is going to cost more in the long run than going straight to fibre would have cost. Most of this stuff has been kept out of the media though, as the government has specifically barred reporting negative facts about FTTN.
On topic. GBX can’t fix out crappy internet, so as long as we live here we have to deal with it.