Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Up to 100 megabytes, I am corrected.

A government member: Megabits.

Megabits. I have not rewritten the laws of physics at all, actually. The reality is that, when it comes to commercially viable opportunities, there are download speeds the private sector provides on wireless communications today that are comparable with what Labor wanted to do with over $90 billion of taxpayers' funds. So we see forecasts as well that predict under 4G and possibly the 5G network that is currently in the R&D stage download speeds of up to one gigabyte and not at a cost of some $90 billion of taxpayers' funds. This is just another example of the way in which Labor was recklessly spending people's money.

But, of course, in the current climate let's not lose sight of an inquiry that is currently taking place into the pink batts fiasco. If there is one example, one crowning glory of Labor incompetence—and there is a lot to choose from—it is the pink batts scheme. It was Labor's design again, Labor's rollout. In every respect Labor's DNA and fingerprints were all over the pink batts scheme, where we saw billions of dollars wasted to roll them out and then billions of dollars wasted to get them back out of ceilings. Meanwhile, lives were lost, the industry was destroyed and Labor walked away as if nothing ever happened. In that respect, the Australian Labor Party will stand condemned for many years.

It was not just about the fact that they took a strong economy and in many respects left it bruised, bashed and dented. It is not about the fact that Labor inherited $20 billion surpluses and left the Australian people with $50 billion deficits. It is not about the fact in isolation that Labor took a situation where we had no net debt and put us on a pathway to $667 billion worth of debt. It is also not exclusively about the fact that Labor put us on a pathway for 16 years of budget deficits. It is also that Labor, in spending the money, chose to spend it so poorly—so much so that we have today an inquiry taking place as to why, unfortunately, Australians lost their lives under their stewardship and why billions of dollars were wasted.

But the other key example—the other crowning glory of Labor's incompetence—would have to be their approach to Australia's border protection. There is very little that can be said in any way, shape or form that would characterise Labor's decisions around border protection as being positive. Under Labor we saw a situation where over 50,000 people came to Australia on over 700 boats. Over 1,000 lives were lost at sea, and Labor said they were brilliant when it came to economic stewardship and management of policy.

That is just the latest example where in a relatively short eight months the minister responsible, the member for Cook, has done an outstanding job stopping the boats, delivering on our promise and, when it comes to economics, saving Australian taxpayers billions of dollars as a consequence of our ability to have a backbone and make the tough decisions. Tonight will be further evidence that we are a mature, adult government with a methodical approach and that will make the hard decisions.

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