Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question and I note his very keen interest in this subject of broadband, which stands in marked contrast to that of the opposition. The shadow minister for communications, the member for Blaxland, has only asked me one question. It was not about broadband; it was about my boat—and he's lost all interest in my boat too! Mind you, they seem to have lost all interest in questioning the immigration minister about boats as well, so it's probably nothing personal; I shouldn't be offended!

The NBN has now over 200,000 paying customers, and we have trebled the number of paying, connected customers on the fibre network since the election. Our focus has been on actually connecting people, getting fibre to the premises and getting people to pay for it as opposed to the Labor Party's policy, which was simply fibre to the press release! Thousands and thousands of premises they claimed to have been passed by fibre; 80 per cent of them at the time of the election could not get a service even if they wanted one. They could be there, their pockets stuffed with money, wanting to give it to the NBN, but there was nowhere they could get it, because the fibre only went as far as the press release.

The focus on getting a stable financial basis depends on good homework. The Labor Party never did its homework. They were like somebody who hears about a restaurant, thinks it sounds great, goes in, does not look at the menu.

Mr Burke interjecting—

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