Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Telstra CEO has stated that a national broadband network serving 98 per cent of Australians could cost up to $15 billion, while your government as late as last week claimed that it would cost between $8 billion and $10 billion. Is Telstra wrong or has the government grossly underestimated the cost of rolling out fibre to 98 per cent of our population?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I begin by saying this: 12 years. The previous government had 12 years to act on a national broadband network, and after this government has been in office for six months, it is all our fault. When I last looked at the OECD data toward the end of last year I seem to recall that in terms of available bandwidth measures and band speed measures, we were languishing somewhere between the Slovak and Slovenian republics. That is where those opposite, after being in government for 12 years, landed Australia and the Australian economy at the time of the change in government.

We have committed to establishing a national broadband network. We regard this as the information highway of the economy of the 21st century. We believe in investing in the future. That is why the government has in fact created three significant funds—the Building Australia Fund of $20 billion; we have established the Education Investment Fund of $11 billion; and we have established a health investment fund of $10 billion—because we believe in investing for Australia’s long-term future. Broadband is a part of it.

It leaves those of us on this side of the House absolutely speechless that those opposite, who have so demonstrably left our broadband network in such disrepair, could now stand up and weep crocodile tears over it. They stand condemned.