Australia has replaced a proposal for the private sector to build a A$10bn national broadband network with a government-led initiative to create a A$43bn high-speed network that has been described as the country’s most ambitious infrastructure project.

The surprise policy switch came as Canberra was due to name its preferred builder of the national network in a tender process that excluded Telstra, Australia’s dominant telecoms group. Delivery of a national broadband network was a central campaign policy when Kevin Rudd’s Labor party won Australia’s 2007 election.