Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I remind her that her Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has presided over a $4.7 billion broadband tender that collapsed, a National Broadband Network that promised to pass 1.3 million premises by 30 June this year and is unlikely to reach even 15 per cent of that number, a compulsory internet filter that was abandoned, an Australia Network tender that was sabotaged and now a media regulation proposal that has crippled the government. Does she still have confidence in the minister?

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

The answer to the member's question is, yes, of course I do. And the answer to the member's question is, yes, it is only this side of politics that has a vision and a plan so that our nation has broadband around the country and we can seize the jobs of the future and the productivity benefits for the future and we can deliver services in new ways.

Let us not forget the performance of the opposition at the last election, when the Leader of the Opposition seemed to believe that the only reason people would ever want broadband is that they would want to download movies faster. That was the limit of his understanding about the world of new technology and the world in which we have to shape our nation's future.

What we understand on this side of the parliament and what the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is in the lead of for this nation is ensuring that we have the infrastructure for this century that our nation needs. It is impossible to imagine us being a strong, productive economy in the future if other nations have the benefit of broadband and we do not—impossible. It is impossible to imagine us having those jobs and that prosperity.

It is also wrong to deny pensioners, to deny people in their homes, to deny students who want to learn, the benefits that come from the services that can be delivered across broadband. I want our children to get a world-leading education. That will be impossible if other children around the world have the benefit of learning through broadband and our children do not. I want our older Australians to have the benefit of the state-of-the-art technology that enables them to stay in their homes longer, with their medical conditions and welfare appropriately monitored through the National Broadband Network. I want regional Australia to no longer feel the tyranny of distance but for businesses in country towns around our nation to be able to compete with businesses around the world in the same way in which they could if they were in Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane's CBD.

This is the vision of broadband for the future. Because the opposition has had so many—the number is in the dozens—failed broadband policies, I can understand why the member for Wentworth comes into this place absolutely unable to argue the merits and so he intends instead to attack the person. On this side of politics, we will get on with the job of rolling out broadband, because I want our future to be one of strength and prosperity. Unfortunately, that vision is not shared by the opposition.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. In the light of the Prime Minister's glowing endorsement, can she assure the House that she regards the minister as having, like all of her colleagues, including the member for Griffith, her very best interests at heart?

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is out of order. I have a vague feeling that the member for Wentworth was expecting that.