Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, as I was saying, fibre construction is up and away in over 65 locations Australia wide, and you can expect to see more and more green fibre in the streets of your cities and suburbs. The member for Wentworth has claimed the cost of building the NBN is much dearer than comparable networks—and we have had the $50 billion, the $70 billion and the $100 billion. Last month the NBN Co. provided the Joint Committee on the NBN with details of the cost of a fibre access network for the premises to be passed this year. What did it show? What it showed was how, through the experience of building the NBN, it is bringing the cost of the local component per premise to between $1,200 and $1,500 per premise. (Time expired)