Speaking at CeBIT Australia 2010, Professor Rod Tucker, director at the Institute for a Broadband Enabled Society (IBES) at the University of Melbourne and member of the NBN Expert Panel, said a cancellation would only temporarily delay the advancement of broadband in Australia.

"If the Opposition was to take power and cancel the NBN our situation wouldn't change," he said, "Broadband is still coming - maybe it will be a bit longer - but there is still a great need to do the kinds if things we are doing [Cancelling the NBN] wouldn't stop us."

Chris Hancock, CEO of the Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet) said that a cancellation would not challenge the existence of AARNet or its role in pushing ahead with cutting edge broadband applications.

"From our perspective AARNet is going to be there no matter what..." he said. "Even though the Opposition's stance may be pushing wireless or remote blackspots or whatever their positioning is going to be coming up to the election, I think it's really important that the research and science community are after things like high throughput of data and real time collaboration.

"Those things will still be driven very strongly from an Australian research and education perspective."