Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Under the Prime Minister's stewardship the cost of his second-rate version of the NBN has already nearly doubled to $56 billion and the time frame for rolling it out has more than doubled to 2020. Can the Prime Minister guarantee that all of the technologies that make up his second-rate network, including HFC, will not blow out any further? Will another cost blow-out be more proof that this Prime Minister is all talk and no delivery?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I really thank the honourable member for the question. That was very generous of him—this is the question he has been nurturing for the two years I was the communications minister and had not been able to ask it. I am grateful for the question. Let us be quite clear about this. The National Broadband Network project was undertaken by the previous Labor government after, literally, 11 weeks' consideration. It was a shockingly reckless failure of policy and process. When they embarked on the project, they had no idea what it would cost and they had no idea how long it would take. There was no way that they could have known that, because the reality is that they had not done their homework. They committed the Commonwealth to a staggeringly ambitious project—

Ms Claydon interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member of that Newcastle will cease interjecting.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

costing $43 billion, but they had no idea whether it would be that much all much more. It was in its own way the craziest thing done by the Labor Party in six years of misgovernment. As is the lot of the Liberal and national parties, we have inherited this mess and we have had to clean it up.

Ms O'Neil interjecting—

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The members for Hotham and Charlton, this is your final warning.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Most bad projects only get worse; this one is getting better. It is getting better because we changed the management, we changed the board, we gave them the flexibility to get on with the job. It will be completed for $30 billion less and between six and eight years sooner than it would have been, had Labor's original plan been continued with

That is not my forecast—that is the forecast of the management of nbn co who for the first time actually know what this project will cost. The reality is that at the time of the last election the nbn co management, and therefore the Labor government, did not know how much it was costing them to connect premises with fibre. The information they had—

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order.

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Will you rule out the cost of HFC going up and blowing out—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume his seat. There is no point of order—that was an abuse of the point of order process and it will not be repeated.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the time of the election the former management under the Labor Party simply did not know what it was costing. It turns out that, far from costing $2,400 per premises to connect them with fibre, it was costing them, and still costs, about $3,600—and to that, of course, you have to add another $700 for the capitalised cost of the lease of the ducts from Telstra. (Time expired)