Some clients are currently asking whether it would be in their interests to try and have their master plans submitted and approved prior to 30 June 2015. They are concerned that there could be serious negative implications for recent proposed changes to the way that the NBN would be rolled out for new developments.
The industry is concerned that there will be a cost-shift from NBN Co to developers that would either render projects unviable or require passing on those costs to greenfield home buyers through higher prices.
The NBN backhaul and connection charges will now only apply to projects approved after 1 July, so if developers are able to get their projects approved by NBN Co. prior to 1 July, then they will not have to pay for backhaul. In addition, developments approved prior to 1 March are exempt from the $400-600 network deployment charge, so there would have been an additional benefit to getting projects approved prior to 1 March.
It is worth noting that only developments further than 1 km from existing NBN backhaul will have to pay a backhaul contribution...that the policy only applies to projects approved before the relevant date. Projects that had applied prior to the date, but were approved after will still be subject to the policy.