Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Nash for her supplementary question. I was explaining that Labor’s costings are hopelessly flawed—about $22 billion short at the moment. In South Korea, which is about half the size of Victoria, the cost of the fibre network was in excess of $50 billion. Let us make no bones about it. Fair is fair. The Australian public should not be duped by Labor’s broadband fantasy. Labor’s costings are flawed, they are undeliverable and they do not stack up against international comparisons. You only have to look at international comparisons and what Telstra says to know that Labor is fishing up a dry gully here. It is back to its old tricks of wasting taxpayers’ money, making promises it cannot deliver. This should be a very clear warning to all Australians that Labor is not fit to manage the trillion-dollar Australian economy, cannot be trusted with the nation’s savings and is certainly not fit for government.