Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

He had 15 minutes himself, but he continues to blow away. They were direct quotes from the OECD report. The member opposite lives in his own fantasy when it comes to these issues, and he keeps saying it. He keeps having essentially one policy, which is delay, and when that does not work it is wreck. They told us to wait for the ACCC advice, then to wait for the implementation study, then to wait for the response to the implementation study. They told us to wait for the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network, and it had five different reports. Then they wanted a delay for a Productivity Commission inquiry, which they will not even say they will listen to. Then they said they wanted a committee of politicians to oversee the NBN rollout—politicians, not experts. Then they said they do not like the McKinsey report because it does not say what the honourable member wants them to say. Their criticism is extraordinary. When we made our announcement, Senator Joyce, who was the previous shadow infrastructure minister, claimed it was coalition policy which had been adopted. When he has been asked about Productivity Commission reports, he has said, ‘I use them when I run out of toilet paper.’ That is his view of Productivity Commission reports. Yet you expect us to take you seriously when you raise issues of Productivity Commission reports.

The fact is that those opposite had 20 failed broadband plans. In all of them, there was not a single cost-benefit analysis of any of their own policies. Indeed, as the Prime Minister stated in question time today, plan No. 20 was leaked due to the internal chaos occurring over there with the former Leader of the Opposition, who would like to be the Leader of the Opposition again and the shadow finance minister, who would like to be the shadow Treasurer and therefore would like to be the deputy leader, who would like to be the Leader of the Liberal Party. Because of all that chaos it was leaked to the Sydney Morning Herald, but we never saw anything more of it. They leaked out that there was this grand plan, the new Malcolm Turnbull policy on broadband, post election, post the election debacle.

Remember back then during the election campaign there was the alternative government and the then shadow minister stood up with the then shadow finance minister—that extraordinary press conference that the Leader of the Opposition could not even be bothered attending—where you had advisers up the back saying, ‘End it, end it now, just stop.’ One of those hooks from the Bugs Bunny Show is what they needed. That is what they needed at their press conference, hoicking him out of the screen, because the policy they put out during the election campaign was so pathetic that it did not last a day after 21 August. But now they have said they have a grand new plan. They announced it through the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald. I think they have an obligation to put out that policy, to put out their alternative, and we will have the debate.

The McKinsey and KPMG study is supported by hundreds of studies that indicate that investment will drive significant economy-wide benefits. We know that the NBN is of vital importance in its benefits across the economy for education, health and smart infrastructure. Indeed, Access Economics has identified that Australia could save between $1.4 billion and $1.9 billion a year if 10 per cent of the workforce teleworked just half the time. But those opposite have never had a plan. They had 20 separate policies. They took a public monopoly and turned it into a private monopoly and called it reform. People in Australia, particularly in the regions, did not benefit. They continued to go backwards as a result of that. What we hear from those opposite is that we should just wait for the market to deliver. They did not deliver during their 12 long years of waste, of opposition. They simply could not deliver it. What this government is determined to do is to actually deliver this reform, deliver this nation-building infrastructure, because it is vital for our future.

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