Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I stand to speak also on the NBN Co. Ltd report for the period 9 April to 30 June 2009. In so doing, in the first instance I wish to respond to a comment from Senator Polley, who was speaking on the same report. As far as I am aware, that comment was one of the lowest personal attacks on the Liberal leader in Tasmania that I am aware of. Calling Will Hodgman the runt of the litter was totally inappropriate. Coming from Senator Polley, coming from anybody, it was entirely inappropriate. I would ask Senator Polley to take the time, perhaps on the adjournment or at a time in the very near future, to stand in this place and apologise on the public record for that comment. If I have got that wrong, I stand to be corrected, but that is my understanding. As for calling Will Hodgman the runt of the litter, he is the Liberal leader, he is a man of credibility, he is a man of substance, and he is leading the Liberal Party. He is—yes, indeed—the son of Michael Hodgman QC, MP, with decades of experience in the federal and state parliaments. To say that he is the runt of the litter is an absolute disgrace.

Senator Polley is indeed from a well-established Labor family in Tasmania. I commend her for that and I commend her family for their contribution to the Tasmanian community. But I am absolutely astounded that she would use those words in this place, and the Tasmanian people would find that incomprehensible and most inappropriate and unfair. I put that on the record right upfront and I ask Senator Polley to correct the record and to apologise for that accusation, because it is totally inappropriate.

With respect to this particular report, I want to touch on the issue of the $100 million Senator Conroy announced on 1 March as having been injected, past tense, into the NBN Tasmania. I have the media release here in front of me. It says:

Media Release

Senator the Hon. Stephen Conroy

The headline says:

$100 million injected into NBN Tas as Stage 3 rollout is announced

The first sentence says:

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, today announced the Rudd Government would make an equity injection of $100 million into NBN Tasmania, to facilitate the further rollout of fibre-to-the-home broadband in the State.

I say right upfront that all Tasmanians, and all of us on this side, want better broadband services for Tasmania. We want it and we know that it is going to benefit Tasmanian families and communities. Senator Conroy made this statement where he said that he has injected the $100 million, but when I checked the company documents yesterday—