In spite of being criticized for his policies such as the proposed Internet filter, Australian communications minister Stephen Conroy has taken on the opposition since the re-election of the Labor administration.

Conroy has particularly faced off against opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull, as he repeatedly declared the government's commitment to a National Broadband Network (NBN) and called on the opposition to stop trying to block the project's progress.

Critics question whether the country needs a fibre-to-premises broadband network that has up to 1 Gigabit speeds and costs an estimated AU$43bn. Detractors say that the project may be a burden to future generations.

NBN Co Limited, a government business enterprise, will be created to oversee the construction of the network. However, key legislation has been stalled in the Senate for the last eight months, stalling a deal between telecommunications supplier Telstra and NBN Co.

The rhetoric has heated up in the last few weeks as both sides hurl accusations at each other. Turnbull released the first salvo, arguing that the government's plan to roll out the network in from the regions would increase the overall cost of the project.

"What little we know of the economics of this network is sufficient to assure us that the NBN as currently conceived will destroy billions of dollars of taxpayers' money. In other words, the asset constructed for $43bn will be worth a fraction of that amount," Turnbull said in his blog.

Conroy responded to the comments by questioning Turbull's credentials. "Let's not overcook this cake here. Malcolm Turnbull was chairperson as a merchant banker of a dial-up company, so he was involved in a dial-up company," he said. He claimed further that governments need to lead investments in broadband, saying that these "are simply too important to be allowed to become a casualty of bureaucratic rivalries or changing policy priorities".