Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Greenway for her question, which is about an important issue for the future of the country, for the prosperity of every Australian, for the future of health services and for the future of education services. I would suggest that nothing better marks the contrast between the political parties in this parliament than the contrast between her question and the one asked before it. Yes, we are determined to build a prosperous future for this country with world-class infrastructure. Today we are reintroducing into this parliament the legislation that enables the structural separation of Telstra so that we can build the National Broadband Network and give Australia the infrastructure of the future.

On the merits of this legislation, the House does not have to take reassurances from me. It can actually turn to the words of the member for Bradfield, Paul Fletcher, who wrote a book called Wired Brown Land? Telstra’s Battle for Broadband. He, of course, is now acting as the shadow shadow communications minister, as I understand it. It is a new convention in the opposition that they have shadow shadow everything. The member for Goldstein is the shadow shadow Treasurer.

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