Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am so happy to be following the member for Bradfield in this debate. The member for Bradfield would know a lot about broadband compared to some of the regional members of this House because, if we look at the electoral divisions ranked by proportion of households with a broadband internet connection, with one being the worst and 150 being the best, his electorate is the best. 64.2 per cent of his electorate has a broadband internet connection. Let us have a look at one of their other speakers, the member for Cowper. His electorate is 20th worst. Yet they come into this place and say they are not opposed to broadband. If you are not opposed to broadband, support it and let us get on with the job.

I was also really interested in the member for Bradfield’s comments that we have made a poor case for the NBN. I will let the electorate be the judge of that, and they were the judge of that. We went to the election saying, ‘If you vote for us, you get the NBN; if you vote for them, you don’t.’ And guess what? They voted for us. I am very happy that my constituents in Greenway were able to have that choice with Riverstone being the site of the first Sydney metro rollout. They voted for it and I do not need to be lectured by anyone about what case has been made when the people have decided.

We heard about Labor’s NBN plan being cobbled together. If you want to see something that was cobbled together, the Liberal Party’s broadband and telecommunications policy is a complete embarrassment. Of all the laughs I got during the campaign, this gave me the most. This was an absolute special. I prefer to call it the dial-up policy actually. It is a very good dial-up policy. I would be absolutely embarrassed to have gone to the election with this.

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