Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Christmas might have been over six weeks ago, but Labor members of parliament all around the country are still parading as economically irresponsible Santa Clauses, talking about the NBN going to each and every seat across the country, telling everybody that they should have fibre to the premise, that fibre to the node is a complete waste of time, that the satellite will be no good and that the wireless tower technology is a waste of money. It is about time the Labor Party came clean across the country and certainly in my electorate of Braddon. They have intimated that their policy will be to restore fibre to the premise to every business, every home and every community service in the country, but they have not yet committed a formal policy. That is because the corporate plan of estimates says that to do that would cost somewhere between $74 billion and $84 billion.

Who is going to pay for this? The nbn co has already got $30-odd billion of taxpayers' money. Does this mean the Labor Party wants to borrow—that is what we would have to do, because we are already in deficit by tens of billions of dollars—$70 billion to $80 billion, to put on the public tab, to pay for this rolled gold rollout of fibre to the premise?

My electorate, on the west coast, are being stirred up into a bit of a frenzy—a few of them—by the Labor Party, particularly, and they need to understand this: when we inherited the NBN plan there was no plan, no design, no money, no funding, no contract, no anything for any NBN to flow to the west coast of Tasmania. Yet they are rolling in there telling everyone they can have it. Satellite will be delivered to the west coast of Tasmania in the next few months. I say to the people of the west coast: that is a great opportunity. Sign up. Find out what it is like. And if it is still a problem let's talk about it. But I do not believe it will. There was no plan by the Labor Party to deliver fibre—in any way, shape or form—into the west coast. The people of the west coast need to understand that.

If they want to hold onto the hope the Labor Party pretends to put forward, we are looking at a potential eight- to 10-year delay in providing the sort of rolled gold system that the Labor Party is talking about. I say to the people of the West Coast: do not believe them. They stuff up everything they touch. They have put this country into immense debt that your children and grandchildren are going to have to pay for. You can wish all you like, but someone, somewhere, some day has to pay for it. The $70 to $80 billion across the country has to be paid for, but the Labor Party do not want to talk about that.

There is an opportunity, in the next few months, for the people of the west coast to sign up to a satellite service that will deliver speeds 10 times faster than those they have now, and it will be a great opportunity for that community.