Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) for nearly a decade, the former Government's oversight of the National Broadband Network (NBN) had been a masterclass in technological incompetence and financial mismanagement, causing Australia to trail other developed countries on broadband quality and speeds;

(b) the Government is delivering what Australians voted for and will expand full fibre access to 1.5 million premises by 2025 with a $2.4 billion equity investment over four years in the 2022-23 budget;

(c) this will:

(i) deliver a faster and more reliable NBN to more families, communities, and businesses and allow more Australians to take advantage of an increasingly digital global economy; and

(ii) give Australians who now rely on copper connections the choice of having full fibre connections to their premises if they want a faster NBN service than their current copper wire can deliver; and

(2) acknowledges economic analysis commissioned by NBN Co that estimates the additional fibre-to-the-premises connections will deliver an additional $20 billion uplift in gross domestic product by 2030 through connecting communities and businesses to faster and more reliable broadband services.

The Albanese government was elected on a platform of a better future for all Australians regardless of whether they live in our cities, our suburbs or out in our regions. This is a platform that we are wasting no time in affirming our commitment to and delivering on. A large part of this platform will tighten up the digital divide that we currently see in Australia between our cities and our regions. There is no denying that, after nine long years of mismanagement by the former Liberal and National government, the digital divide has widened and many people have been left behind. We have a very big multitechnology mess to clean up.

For nine years, let's be frank, the previous government completely bungled the NBN rollout. They turned what could have been a world-leading program into a slow paced and uneven system of broadband connectivity. Just imagine if they'd continued what had been started. So many more—millions more—households would be connected to full fibre. That would be good not just for consumers; it would be good for business, health services and education. Yet what they did was start all over again, and they made a mess of it.

The coalition's record on the NBN is a masterclass in what not to do. It truly highlights their complete economic and technological incompetence. I've got to say that when former Prime Minister Abbott made his comments about the country's broadband needs, you could have forgiven him, because this wasn't his area of expertise, let's be frank. But when Prime Minister Turnbull came along, here was a man who understood technology, and he understood finance. He understood what should've happened and, frankly, I think it was a great disappointment that, under Prime Minister Turnbull in particular, the NBN rollout was allowed to continue to be such a mess.

Through delays and cost blowouts, the coalition's initial promise was to build the NBN for $29 billion—something the Labor Party said couldn't happen. But the Liberals were adamant: the Liberals said they'd build it for $29 billion. Well, that soon turned into $41 million and then $49 billion. It actually ended up costing $58 billion—double the cost—and the quality is half what it could've been. If we had continued with the NBN as Labor had initially designed it, we would have a full-blown NBN, full fibre-optic to 93 per cent of the population, from memory, for probably less than that amount. So not only does this cost blowout prove that those opposite can't manage a budget and show financial responsibility, but the delays of the rollout caused Australia to trail other developed countries on broadband quality and speeds; they leapfrogged us. The previous government did nothing but bungle the NBN and leave Australians behind in a technological dark age. If those opposite were in power today, sadly, this would still be the case.

Only this month Senator Sarah Henderson described expanding fibre access to more Australians as 'wasting taxpayers' funds'—unbelievable. The fact is the coalition is more than happy to leave regional Australians in the dark with poor internet reliability and speeds. Labor are not. We are determined to close the digital divide that those opposite failed to do. Unlike the coalition, the Albanese government firmly believes in enabling the NBN's full potential. We have a proud history of backing and developing our technological capacity through the NBN. It was Labor who founded the NBN with the purpose of providing fast, reliable and affordable broadband to all Australians. It is a legacy that remains true today and it remains this government's goal for the NBN.

In the 21st century access to reliable broadband is not a luxury or privilege; it is a necessity. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us about the importance of reliable broadband for all Australians. The Albanese government will expand full-fibre access to 1.5 million premises by 2025 with a $2.4 billion equity investment over four years in this budget. This will ensure faster and more reliable NBN to more Australians, including many throughout the regions. We are determined to close the digital divide that those opposite failed to do. We built the NBN originally, we are back on track and we are going to make sure the NBN is fit for the purpose into the future.

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyons for this important motion. I'm encouraged by the government's budget commitment to improve the NBN, which is critical technology that has been substandard for far too long. But let me say 'I am watching you' because Australians should be able to connect to the internet no matter where they are. It is an essential service as vital as water, electricity or roads but for too long those in the regions, including in my electorate of Indi, have not received the fast, reliable internet that our city cousins are benefiting from. The promise originally was bold but the disappointment has been bitter.

Constituents frequently contact me about the woeful speeds of the NBN. These constituents are businesses, doctors, students, older people, younger people. The Mitta Mitta Brewing Company recently told me that on weekends the NBN is so slow it can completely drop out and they can't use their EFTPOS machine. That's a pub with free beer if you can't charge the customer. We need to get this fixed. In Beechworth GP clinics installed NBN only to discover it is so unreliable that it becomes a health hazard when telehealth services constantly drop out. Constituents from Kinglake and Marysville, communities that were significantly impacted by the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, contact me, fearing the next disaster event, when committees will struggle to stay informed and connected because the NBN speeds are just so poor.

One constituent contacted me only last month sharing her frustrations. She said this: 'I feel the NBN service is extremely subpar here and well below what was promised. Not being able to join web-based hosting services not just affects my work but it potentially affects web-based learning because I'm a part-time university student and it affects my capacity with telehealth services, to name just a couple of vital things I need it for.'

Professor Ross Garnaut recently wrote in his book The Superpower Transformation that connectivity to internet services as a main hurdle standing in a way of low- and zero-emissions economic growth in rural Australia. This is particularly so for the farm sector, who, without connectivity, cannot take advantage of technologies dealing with weed spraying, renewable energy production or labour efficiencies. So, clearly, quality NBN is not just about streaming your favourite movie or playing a video game. A fast, reliable NBN is about health, education, jobs, food production and knowing what to do when the next bushfire happens.

Since my election, I have worked hard to offer solutions to this problem. In the last parliament, I introduced the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Faster Internet for Regional Australia) Bill 2022, and the purpose of the bill was simple: to ensure all regional Australians have access to fast, high-quality and reliable internet at the same standard our city cousins enjoy. The bill aimed to achieve this by establishing solid standards that the NBN and other companies who own and operate broadband infrastructure must meet to avoid facing financial penalties. Under the bill, the NBN must deliver a minimum of 25 megabits per second at all times of the day on average—not at three in the morning but all day. By comparison, right now constituents tell me the NBN in their houses serves up an average of 11 to 14 megabits per second. Sometimes it's as slow as five megabits per second. And it's not just in their houses; it's in their businesses too.

People are usually shocked to learn that no internet standards like those I proposed in that bill exist right now. It's quite shocking. What this means is that, in regional electorates like mine, there is no competition and there is no incentive for NBN to provide a high level of service. I recently met with the Minister for Communications to talk about improving standards for internet providers, and I look forward to working more closely with this government to enshrine in legislation—not in regulations but in legislation—the highest standards we should expect from statutory providers like the NBN.

In Indi we've also formed the Indi Telecommunications Advisory Group, which I've steered since 2019. It was established before me by my predecessor. This group comprises representatives from all of our local government areas and from the telecommunications companies, as well as citizens who are highly skilled in this area. We've developed community-led responses to connectivity issues like those we see in the NBN. It's initiatives like these that show I can offer well-researched community-led solutions to work with NBN, because without good internet regional committees are held back from reaching their potential as the engine room of this nation.

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I begin by thanking the member for Lyons for introducing this important private member's motion. It is great to be in government, because now we can begin to fix the woefully slow and unpredictable NBN delivered by the previous coalition government. This is an issue for many in my electorate, particularly in fast-growing new housing estates like Mount Duneed, Armstrong Creek, North Torquay and Leopold. Many of these estates are just a few kilometres from the Geelong CBD, yet often their fixed wireless or other NBN service fails to deliver adequate data to stream a video or to work from home. Other townships on the Bellarine Peninsula, which are still receiving the NBN through old copper wire lines, find that they struggle, often only getting a trickle of data.

Before the Albanese government was elected, I implored the then coalition government to fix these frustrations for people living in my electorate. Almost 10 years on, the previous coalition government have failed to deliver. As a result, a large proportion of my constituency work in Corangamite relates to poor NBN. To put it bluntly, the coalition rolled out to Australians a cobbled-together mishmash of technologies. Today the NBN is prone, because of the decisions of the previous government, to dropouts. We have massive gaps, and it is incapable of delivering the speeds residents and businesses expect in 2022.

It was a Labor government which originally established the NBN. Labor set out to provide quality broadband to all Australians. We had a plan to do that, using the best available technologies, but the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments then mutilated the plan. Firstly, the coalition promised to build the NBN for $29 billion. It then became $41 billion and then $49 billion, and it ended up actually costing $58 billion—double the cost. The coalition told us the NBN rollout was complete, but that would be a very big surprise to the many families, home based businesspeople, GPs, pubs and schools who can't even get usable NBN in my electorate.

The coalition sunk an eye-watering amount of taxpayers' funds into procuring out-of-date technology. Who will forget the purchase of 60,000 kilometres of new but obsolete copper wire, enough to wrap around planet earth one and a half times? At the time, the experts told the coalition that it was a waste of taxpayers' money, but they went ahead anyway. Unlike the coalition, the Albanese government believes in enabling the NBN's full potential because, in the 21st century, reliable broadband is not a luxury; it is a necessity. The pandemic demonstrated the importance of reliable broadband as more Australians learned, worked, received medical assessments and transacted remotely.

The Albanese government has wasted no time announcing the expansion of full fibre access to 1.5 million premises by 2025. This will be done with the $2.4 billion equity investment over four years announced in the October federal budget. It will deliver a faster and more reliable NBN to more families, communities and businesses. Our plan will give Australians, who now rely on slow copper connections, the choice of having faster full fibre connections to their premises. Labor's plan is to make sure that households and businesses in the regions are not left behind.

The $2.5 billion provided to NBN to upgrade 1.5 million premises to full fibre access includes $1.1 billion for a further 660,000 homes and businesses in the regions currently relying on copper wire. It builds on our fixed wireless upgrade, which we're already delivering, with $480 million provided towards a $750 million upgrade of the NBN fixed wireless network. Network coverage will be expanded to cover an extra 150,000 premises that have satellite-only access, and all 755,000 premises in the expanded footprint will be able to access speeds of up to 100 megabits per second, with 85 per cent able to access up to 250 megabits per second. The upgrade will also deliver wholesale business-hour speeds of at least 50 megabits per second. The Albanese government's investment will ensure that around 10 million homes and businesses across Australia will have access to gigabyte speeds by late 2025.

This investment has the potential to deliver an estimated $20 billion in uplift in GDP by 2030 and will help to grow our global competitiveness. It will help to support thousands of jobs for construction workers, engineers and project managers in our regions and suburbs. The Albanese government's plan is to ensure that Australian families, businesses and communities are able to access the broadband services they deserve because reliable access is not a luxury; it is a necessity.

Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this private member's motion regarding the NBN, a motion I read in utter disbelief given the preposterous delusion it contains. Let us look at the facts.

How could the NBN be, as the member for Lyon asserts, a masterclass of technological incompetence and financial mismanagement when, by the time of the federal election this year, the NBN had in fact, made ready for connection 12.1 million Australian homes, of which 8.5 had in fact been connected; given 5.1 million homes access to ultra-fast speeds of up to a gigabit per second through either fibre to the premises or HFC; created 304 business fibre zones, 127 of them in regional Australia, connecting more than 1.5 million businesses to enterprise ethernet, more than 315,000 of them in non-metropolitan areas; more than doubled its revenue between 2018 and 2022 from $1.9 billion to $5.1 billion; and, indeed, reduced the debt outstanding on the Commonwealth's loan from $19.5 billion originally to $6.4 billion? Does this sound like technological incompetence and financial mismanagement? I don't think so.

When Labor conceived of the NBN, the internet was largely an email based system in the home. At the time, only 70 per cent of Australian homes had access to the internet, the majority through digital subscriber line services, the old DSL. The average monthly household download was minuscule. Download speeds were measured in kilobytes per second. Today it is over 500 gigabytes a month, and download speeds are up to one gigabit per second. I have news to break to the government. The speed of the internet received in the family home or small business depends largely on the speed selected by the household or the business. Today roughly three-quarters of all residential and business customers are connected to plans with download speeds of 50 megabits and above. Of those, slightly less than 20 per cent have opted for a speed of 100 megabits or higher. That is, in their judgement, enough for their needs. For millions of households and small businesses, 50 megabits per second does everything they need, enabling them to operate multiple devices and run streaming and video conferencing simultaneously.

Prior to the election, vast improvements were already underway, funded by NBN revenue, not by taxpayer dollars. By the time of the federal election in late May, hundreds and thousands of Australian homes were already able to elect to upgrade to fibre-to-the-premises connections from their existing fibre-to-the-node connections if that, indeed, was what they wanted. When Labor promised an NBN, it promised an unobtainable dream and it delivered a train wreck. The full Rudd fantasy was a network serving 90 per cent of homes with speeds of up to 100 megabits per second, to be completed within eight years, at a cost of $43 billion. All it takes is a cursory look at the corporate statements of NBN at the time that the Rudd government lost power to see the truth of what was actually delivered. In 2012 the NBN corporate plan had a target of 286,000 premises for June 2013. In June 2013 the NBN fell a full 100,000 premises short of its own target.

It took a Liberal-National government to get the NBN back on track, and, if I may say so, it took an exceptional group of telco, governance, finance, construction, legal and public policy experts leading the NBN to deliver the ubiquitous high-quality NBN that Australians enjoy today. I served with many of those people—people of the calibre of Ziggy Switkowski, Kate McKenzie, Drew Clarke, Michael Malone, Andrew Dix, Kerry Schott, Patrick Flannigan, Justin Milne, Shirley In't Veld, Bill Morrow and, of course, the great Stephen Rue, among others. There was no finer government business enterprise board. It steered NBN through massive change and significant risk, through natural disasters and, indeed, through the global pandemic. It was precisely due to the leadership of that board and the company's senior management that Australia was able to continue to function through the pandemic. For schooling, further study, health, work, weddings, funerals, arts and culture, traffic levels rose by 70 per cent during the day. Our entire lives all went online almost without a glitch or a silent buffering wheel.

Labor has no shame. This government has tried to paint NBN's self-funded 2020 announcement of a $4.5 billion upgrade as a change in direction from the Multi Technology Mix rollout. It is nothing of the sort. That upgrade was consistently aligned with the coalition's long-term strategy, set out as early as 2013, when it shifted from Labor's plan—a plan which overpromised and underdelivered. The coalition's plan was to build an NBN that Australians actually needed and wanted. As demand for higher speeds emerged, upgrades to the network were made, and they continue to be made, using the full gamut of global improvements in telecommunications technology and know-how.

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyons for this motion. There is no better example of the former government's failure on the NBN than in regional Australia. My electorate of Gilmore on the New South Wales South Coast has been hampered by second-rate internet for far too long, holding us back from the world of opportunity that high-quality connectivity can bring. The pandemic was a very difficult time, but one thing it did do was free up the possibility of remote working. What this meant was that people who had previously moved away from regional Australia to get the jobs they wanted could actually move back to their home towns. People who had never lived in regional Australia before could make their tree or sea change and keep their jobs, because they could work from home. It was great news for local economies, if only you could find somewhere with good enough internet. Local people have been struggling with connectivity issues for far too long, and they have had enough.

Adam, in Nowra, said: 'We've had issues with the old lines and our NBN for about five years. We've been told only the new fibre-to-the-premises rollout will fix it.' Robert, from Worrigee, said: 'We are forced to use the ADSL2 Telstra network, which is currently falling to pieces. Our current download speeds are typically two megabits per second, worse than a Third World country.' Thomas, from Falls Creek, said he has four kids and his partner is a teacher, but the speed and amount of internet is below par. I think that's putting it mildly.

Cahill from Bateman's Bay said, 'In the wake of COVID, it's been shown time and again that our current network infrastructure is woefully out of date.' He went on to say: 'This comes as no surprise. We know fibre to the node was outdated technology when the Liberals proposed it. The whole country needs a fibre-to-the-premises upgrade, the Gilmore electorate included.' Well, Cahill, we agree. Under the Liberals, Cahill was quoted $13,000 for an upgrade to fibre to the premises, but the Albanese government doesn't think local people should be out thousands of dollars because of the Liberal's failed internet. We believe in small business, and we know that small business needs internet that is fast, reliable and affordable. Labor created the NBN. We did this because we knew that Australians needed a futureproof internet service that was worthy of the 21st century.

Finally, we are delivering that for local people, with 1.5 million premises around Australia to be upgraded to full fibre access under our plan. This includes $1.1 billion for a further 660,000 homes and businesses in regional Australia, like the New South Wales South Coast, that are relying on copper wire. We will also improve speeds and reliability for people on the fixed wireless and satellite-only services. I am regularly contacted by local people who want to know when they will get it, because they are anxious and excited to reap the benefits of our NBN plan and we have already started. In September, homes and businesses in Bendalong, Berringer Lake, Cunjurong Point and Manyana could finally place their orders to upgrade to fibre to the premises.

Finally, these local people could take advantage of faster speeds, more reliable internet and the services that we need for a digital society and economy. We are making this investment because we know it doesn't benefit only local people; it benefits our economy. Around 10 million homes and businesses across Australia will have access to gigabit speeds by late 2025, giving our economy a $20 billion boost in GDP by 2030. It will grow our global competitiveness, but it will also grow the competitiveness of the regions. With improved internet speed, access and reliability, businesses and workers will have even more reason to relocate to the South Coast. There will be even more reason to invest in our community to create local jobs, to open small local businesses and to thrive in our beautiful coastline.

Under the Liberals' failed NBN plan, our community has been left behind. Local people have been left frustrated by internet that wasn't up to scratch. Local businesses have been forced to cope with slow speeds and forced to miss out on many of the benefits of the digital economy. We have missed out on the working-from-home opportunities that the pandemic has created. If a major company wanted to set up a remote working hub in the regions, they would first look to the technology potential.

Finally, thanks to the Albanese government's plans, the South Coast will be a strong competitor. This huge investment is good news for local people, good news for local business and great news for our economy. I commend the motion.

Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyons for this important motion. I also agree with the member for Groom who recognised that the NBN was critical for Australia's response to the COVID pandemic. It was critical in helping kids to continue their education, critical in helping families to stay connected and critical in terms of helping businesses to stay open. Over the last two years, the reliance on services over the NBN has never been greater, so it is worth considering the history of the NBN and the decisions made by successive governments to deliver this critical piece of infrastructure.

It was 2009 when then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the beginning of a new National Broadband Network strategy. The plan was to build fibre to the premises. This would be a quantum leap from the existing unreliable national internet infrastructure that relied primarily on copper cabling. It was a bold plan. It was visionary and it was the plan that Australia needed. Quite in contrast to what the member for Groom just said, almost immediately, the Liberals opposed it. Tony Abbott, as the Leader of the Opposition, said in 2010 that they would, 'demolish the NBN because it wasn't necessary'. Soon thereafter, the shadow communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said that there would be no demand for the services that the NBN would deliver, and it was not required in Australia.

Sadly, after the 2013 election, the Liberals got their hands on Labor's NBN and almost immediately they began to vandalise it. The Liberals' plan was to replace the largely fibre-to-the-premises model initiated by the Labor government with what they called a multitechnology mix or MTM model, including a range of old technologies including fibre to the node, fibre to the curb and hybrid fibre coaxial cable.

The changes to the NBN under the Liberals are some of the worst public policy decisions in Australia's history. The consequence of the move to the MTM model has ended up costing Australia taxpayers billions of dollars more than the deep fibre NBN original model and will result in a network that is considerably less capable of meeting the nation's future internet needs. The Liberals' policy took the visionary NBN and turned it into three kinds of disaster. First of all, it was a financial disaster.

The mixed technology approach was supposed to be much cheaper than full fibre. Malcolm Turnbull told us it would be much less expensive. First he promised it would cost just $29 billion but then this will successfully revised upwards, first to $41 billion then to $49 billion and then to $58 billion. The Liberals went a bit wrong in their financial forecasts. This was not a small forecast error; they were out by a factor of two. The cost was double. They were 100 per cent wrong in their forecast of the cost of their new model. As a result, their NBN model became one of the biggest blowouts of public financial projections in a decade. The cost blowout makes a mockery of Liberals' claims to be prudent financial managers.

Not only was the additional build cost disastrous but the changes to the NBN also degraded the ongoing financial position of the network. The financial health of the NBN is a function of its cash flow, which in turn is a function of revenue and operating costs, and the original model was a relatively low-cost operating model with minimal need for upgrade or maintenance. But the current NBN is beset with additional costs, not only the additional costs which we are now experiencing of upgrading the network through additional capital spend but also additional costs of ongoing maintenance of a much more complex and fragile network using a mix of technologies, all of which are approaching the end of their life-cycle. For both of these reasons, the future cash flows of the NBN have been burdened by these additional costs, weighing down the long-term viability of the NBN.

Second, the new NBN model is operationally disastrous. Rather than having a clear, reliable, high-speed fibre NBN, we have an NBN which delivers worse reliability through inferior technologies. Now we are having to change that but years and billions of dollars have been wasted.

Finally, the changes to the NBN were economically disastrous. We have a wasted decade of opportunity, a wasted decade of when we could have been surging ahead with the digital economy, a wasted decade when we could have been moving our digital economy forward. Australians know who to blame: Liberals, the hubris of Malcolm Turnbull and the incompetence of the member for Bradfield as communications minister.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion of the member for Lyons and against the proposition within it. I start by making the comment that there are some things we will never know and, luckily, one of them is what a financial disaster NBN would have become if the Labor Party did not lose the 2013 federal election. At that point in time, we know the grim statistics: there were only 51,000 properties connected to the NBN six years after Labor were elected in 2007 and started the rollout of their plan. At that rate, come 10 years later, where we are right now, we would have about half a million properties connected to the NBN instead of the situation we are in now thanks to the coalition winning the 2013 election, with more than 12 million properties having access to the NBN.

One of the speakers—I think it was the member for Groom—mentioned earlier how the NBN was put through a very significant test COVID in 2020, when a dramatic increase of capability and requirement was put onto that network and of course it passed with flying colours. There was evidence of its ability to handle that dramatic increase in demand as so many people suddenly needed to work from home. It was resilient. It was able to handle that dramatic increase in demand as so many people suddenly wished to—or needed to—work from home and do a whole range of things with their technology. This wasn't the usual load on the system, and it included, let's be honest, accessing entertainment and streaming services et cetera to get through the struggles of isolation.

We are actually very proud of the NBN that has been built. One of the points that the now government have made in criticism of our NBN is the cost of it. Well, they've equally said that ours was one designed to save money, so if our NBN budget blew out then God knows what the cost would have been for the platinum scheme that Labor were planning on pursuing had the government not changed in 2013.

The most important thing is that we've always been aware of a mix of technology being the solution to many problems, and one of them is providing appropriate connectivity services to the people of Australia and the businesses of Australia. The Labor Party had a one-size-fits-all approach to that. They wanted fibre to the premises going to all properties everywhere, whether or not those properties wanted it, and they were treating every single consumer as having the exact same financial capacity to access the system and the exact same financial capacity to pay for it—and that is clearly not the case.

We know, in the 15 years since the NBN was conceived, where technology is right now. We know what Elon Musk is doing with the Starlink system, just as one example, and what's that doing in Ukraine right now to help with remote connectivity. We don't know where that type of direct satellite technology could be in the years ahead. It's the same with the 5G spectrum, which has now been rolled out, and the 6G spectrum is around the corner. Also, what might wi-fi might do with the Internet of Things.

The point is you can choose one single solution at one point in time to meet the technology needs of the future and you could spend tens of billions or hundreds of billions of dollars on that system. Or you can invest in a sensible way that uses a mix of technologies. You can recognise that technology will change into the future and that all kinds of things could come along to open up more and different opportunities that you could not conceive at the time. That was always the great fault and flaw of Kevin Rudd's NBN.

Unfortunately, we saw how horribly that could go wrong with the pink batts and school halls. Luckily, they were so terrible at rolling out the NBN they only got 51,000 homes done by the time the 2013 election came along. We were able to put some sensible changes in place to that system. So instead of an enormous financial burden falling upon the Commonwealth, we were able to make a change that now means 99 per cent of homes—more than 12 million premises—have access to the NBN. They have it through a suite of technologies and they can choose what service they need, suitable to their needs and suitable to their capacity to pay, and the taxpayer is not burdened by what would have been a blow-out of tens of billions of dollars if we had proceeded with the Kevin Rudd one-size-fits-all system back then. The coalition are very proud of our record on the NBN and how it will deliver for Australia into the future.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.