with an 11.01% two-party swing towards him. After discussing the possibility of a return to the Shadow Cabinet with Tony Abbott, Turnbull was made Shadow Minister for Communications. In his first policy announcement in the role, Turnbull stated that a Coalition government would "demolish" the recently introduced National Broadband Network. Delivering the 2012 Alfred Deakin Lecture on digital liberty, he spoke out strongly against the Gillard government's proposed two-year data retention law. In July 2012, Turnbull was criticised by some Liberal MPs for saying that civil unions should be introduced as a first step towards establishing same-sex marriage in Australia. Tony Abbott rejected Turnbull's suggestion of holding a conscience vote on the issue. Abbott government Minister for Communications (2013–2015) On 9 April 2013, Turnbull and Tony Abbott presented their party's alternative National Broadband Network (NBN) plan. The plan prioritised a modified and scaled-down NBN with "fibre to the node" (FTTN) and last-mile by copper cable. The new policy contrasted with the previous position which had called for the dismantling of the entire NBN. After the Coalition victory in the 2013 federal election, Turnbull was appointed Minister for Communications and began implementing the alternative NBN strategy. In 2014, Turnbull announced that the Vertigan Report, a cost–benefit analysis of providing fast broadband to regional and rural Australia through wireless and satellite services, revealed that continuing the plan would cost nearly 5 billion and was expected to produce only 600 million in economic benefits – a return of just 10%. In spite of the economic cost, Turnbull stated that whilst subsidising broadband to regional areas is "fiendishly expensive", there was no other option. In December 2014, Turnbull brokered a deal between the Australian government, NBN Co and Telstra whereby NBN Co acquired Telstra's copper network and hybrid-fibre coaxial (HFC) to deliver the NBN. Telstra and NBN Co agreed to work together on the FTTN trial involving 200,000 premises. In August 2015, Turnbull revealed that the overall end cost of the network build would likely expand up to an additional $15 billion, with NBN Co likely to take on the additional expenditure as debt. Though still cheaper than the original Labor Party NBN policy, which aimed to deliver much faster connection speeds, the peak funding requirement under the Liberal model ran to between $46 billion and $56 billion. February 2015 leadership spill motion Following persistent leadership tensions amidst poor opinion polling, a leadership spill