Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very positive about telecommunications. This fibre-to-the-node proposal looks remarkably like a proposal that came out last year under the then leader, Mr Beazley. What we are seeing with this proposal is absolute proof that Labor does not care one jot about rural and regional Australia. If there was ever a reason for people right around this nation not to support Labor in rural and regional areas, this is it. What they want to do is rip out $2 billion from the Communications Fund that this government set up, pushed very hard by the Nationals, to ensure future reliability in rural and regional areas.