Mary Fisher (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Linton went on:

So why did it come as a surprise—because it had absolutely no thought behind it …

As we embark on the $43 billion taxpayer spend over a decade to build the National Broadband Network, demand is shifting to wireless. There is a lot of forethought in that! Analyst Simon Molloy commented in the AFR recently:

You never know where the turning points are until they’ve gone past.

                   …                   …                   …

Communications users are voting with their dollars for mobility.

That is code for they are voting for wireless. But that is not what Minister Conroy and Rudd Labor are hell-bent on building.

While Minister Conroy spins a hole way downward with his National Broadband Network and his NBN implementation strategy, NBN Co. is embarking on some trial projects of its own. There are five national test sites where different roll-out techniques will be trialled. One of those is in the marginal semirural South Australian electorate of Willunga, which is about one hour’s drive south of Adelaide. In fact, it is the smallest of the test sites. Willunga’s local council put a submission to NBN Co. on Friday, 26 February and some three days later found out they were getting what they are getting. By the very next Monday, three days later, on 1 March, they found out they were getting what they supposedly wanted. The council’s group manager, Mr Brian Hales, said that it was ‘a bit of a surprise’. Was this a burst of efficiency from Minister Conroy, his department and NBN Co. or a welcome announcement in Labor’s most marginal South Australian seat, the state electorate of Mawson?

What the electorate can expect from Rudd Labor and Rann Labor is delivery for marginal seats and delivery based on mateship rather than on merit. There is no management of major projects. There is waste as a result of these major projects, and that waste clearly has an impact on the Labor states and our one Liberal state.

As for water and the lack of a national agreement for the River Murray, Premier Rann tries to say that the water coming to South Australia is of his making—probably part of his mateship with Prime Minister Rudd! It is clearly made by Mother Nature not by Premier Rann. The only things that are made by Rudd Labor and Rann Labor are the mismanagement of major projects and the waste that follows therefrom. It is a tragedy.