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

I know the member for Wentworth is unhappy that the parliament has repudiated his entreaties to wreck the NBN, but his unhappiness is no excuse for coming into this parliament and just making stuff up, which is of course what the member for Wentworth has just done. I have said in this parliament on a number of occasions when the opposition have asked for more information about the NBN that there is no point providing it to the opposition. There is a point providing it to people of goodwill, like the crossbench representatives in this parliament, but there is no point providing it to the opposition because they will not care what it says; whatever it says, they are determined to wreck the NBN. We could not have a better example than what the member for Wentworth has just done in this parliament. The capital expenditure figure in the summary of the NBN business case released yesterday is $35.7 billion, and he knows it. And the capital expenditure figure is less than the earlier capital expenditure figure in the implementation study because capital costs have been changed by the deal with Telstra—the deal with Telstra that he wanted to fall over, the deal with Telstra he spent the last few days trying to wreck by holding up the structural separation bill.

I understand the member for Wentworth is embarrassed by and ashamed of his political failure this fortnight. We all understand the member for Wentworth was out there trailing his coat with the backbench; he was going to be the custodian of a big political victory for the Liberal Party in this parliamentary fortnight, and it has all ended in tears. But all ending in tears for the member for Wentworth does not justify making figures up. Anybody who wants the facts should go to the summary of the NBN business case, released yesterday.

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