Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. Will the minister explain to the House why it is important for the government to receive informed advice before decisions are made to fund major projects?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. I note that last month I tabled a landmark report by one of our most distinguished public servants, Bill Scales, on the rushed and chaotic public policy process that led to Labor's fibre-to-the-premises NBN. The opposition says that Bill Scales is a mate. Well, he was appointed to not one but two important government inquiries by Prime Minister Julia Gillard—both the Bradley inquiry and the Gonski inquiry. Over 40 years he has served governments, both Labor and coalition, as secretary of the Victorian premier's department and as chairman of what is now the Productivity Commission. He is one of our most distinguished public servants. And Labor, rather than facing up to the reality of the facts that he revealed in his report of this disgraceful public policy failure, wants to attack him personally by calling him a 'Liberal mate' when in fact he is a man, the chancellor of Swinburne University and one of our most distinguished public servants.

What his report revealed was that in only 77 days, between 29 January 2009 and 7 April, Labor moved from a conventional policy on broadband to one that involved them spending $43 billion in a wholly government owned project. That was the measure of Labor's failure. You have to hand it to the member for Blaxland and the member for Greenway. There they are—they are the ones that are left defending Labor's failed policy, which has been demonstrated to have failed.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I simply want to point out that the children on the left will stop waving to the children leaving the gallery.

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

I think these children are beyond anyone's ability to reform. The member for Blaxland and the member for Greenway have the unenviable task of defending Labor's failed policy. They must sometimes feel they have found themselves spending not just a weekend at Bernie's but a long weekend at Bernie's, because you can just see the member for Blaxland: 'How's that great Labor policy going?' 'Oh, everything's okay,' he says. Bernie is still alive; the policy lives. They are in total denial all the time, never facing up to the reality of Labor's failure.

Honourable members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will resume his seat. There are a few try-hards in here today who are anxious to have an early mark and get an early plane. Perhaps they can go to the 'naughty corner' as well. We will have some silence while we hear from the ministers who are answering the questions which you are asking.

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

The Labor Party is in a state of denial and of course we have the chirruping Leader of the Opposition there, full of melodrama. He does not know whether he is Dudley Do-Right or Snidely Whiplash, with his melodramatic lines of feigned indignation. (Time expired)