Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

) ( ): My question is to the Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities, representing the Minister for Communications. Will the Minister update the House as to how the government is working to ensure that the NBN is affordable to consumers and businesses? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bowman for his question, because he has a strong interest in the National Broadband Network, a strong interest in seeing it delivered and a strong interest in seeing it delivered affordably. That is something that the Labor Party demonstrably have no track record at achieving. In fact, their plan would have seen the total cost of the NBN be some $30 billion more than it is going to be under the coalition's plan—and, of course, that would have fed through to higher prices for consumers. On this side, we are committed to affordability and we are very conscious of cost-of-living issues, and that is one of the reasons why we varied the rollout strategy to make it as affordable as possible. Pleasingly, the NBN has recently made changes to the NBN wholesale pricing structure aimed at improving the services offered to consumers and keeping costs low. The ACCC recently released a report which found that the new wholesale pricing has resulted in a 37 per cent boost to the amount of broadband capacity that internet retailers are delivering to users.

I'm asked whether there are any alternative approaches. There would, of course, be the approach that we had from the other side of the chamber, who had six years in charge of the NBN—that's a very long time—and yet, when they left government, barely 300,000 premises around the country were able to connect. Today, the number of premises in areas ready for service is 7,235,000. On the one hand, 300,000; on the other hand, 7,235,000. It's worth focusing for a moment on some of the areas that missed out after Labor's six years of glowing, bold promises about the NBN. In the member for Adelaide's electorate in September 2013, do you know how many premises were connected?

A government member: Zero.

Zero. In the member for Griffith's electorate, how many premises were connected? Zero. In the member for Jagajaga's electorate, how many premises were connected? Zero. In the member for Hindmarsh's electorate—actually, it was one. One! But there is one other member who briefly had responsibility for the National Broadband Network. In the land of 'Albania', the total number of premises connected in Grayndler was zero. When Labor— (Time expired)