Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pity, I observe, that the motion moved by Senator Birmingham did not relate to all of the answers from our senators today. There were some answers that the opposition would not want to talk about.

One thing that this side of the chamber is absolutely convinced of is that Senator Conroy is doing an outstanding job in relation to the National Broadband Network. It is a policy that we released during the election and that is extremely popular around the country. When I look at the contribution from the other side, the coalition, it is really about: ‘It wasn’t our idea—we didn’t think of it first—so we’re going to do everything we can possibly do to undermine it and wreck it.’ We have seen the comments from Senator Barnaby Joyce, blatantly admitting that his role was to pull the rug out from under this as a way of bringing the government down. Everywhere you turn, you see an opposition who simply cannot accept that this is one of the most popular policy positions that a government has ever taken in this country.

It is widely accepted in the community that our current broadband services are deficient—we are not up with the rest or the best of the world—that they require significant improvement. We have a state-of-the-art policy to be rolled out, and the other side, quite frankly, just do not like it because they did not think of it first, it was not their idea, they are not innovative or creative enough to come up with this sort of solution. This solution is going to put Australia into the next century, and fast, as we get better access to broadband than we have ever had in this country.

We know that the NBN is a critical piece of infrastructure. It is an expensive piece of infrastructure. It will take a number of years to bed down. But we also know that in Tasmania it is hugely popular. It is successful. The Casuarina area in the Northern Territory is one of the next areas that will be rolled out, and people up there are incredibly excited about this. They are tired of having to rely on dial-up access. They want fast broadband. Industries in the Northern Territory, as we heard Senator Carr say today, are relying on this to be innovative and creative—to be world best and world first.

We have all of these excuses coming out of the opposition. We have Malcolm Turnbull’s suggestion to set up a joint select committee, and, of course, ‘Send it all off to the Productivity Commission.’ None of this is washing out there. None of this is having any effect on people who are wildly excited about this idea and just want the government to get on with it, without the opposition putting roadblocks in the way. And now we have the business plan suggestion.

We have heard Senator Conroy’s explanation: the ACCC is providing some comments to the government about the business plan, cabinet will re-look at those comments and in due course those areas of the business plan that can be released—that are not commercially sensitive and will not damage the business relationship that undermines the NBN—will be made public. The Prime Minister has given that commitment. But for some reason the opposition think that the government can bypass all of the legitimate channels, the checks and balances, and release any document they have a request for, instantly and publicly. This is just to satisfy their political ineptitude—at the end of the day, they did not think of this policy. They did not come up with this creative idea. This is the opposition’s third attempt to undermine the work this government is doing, after having been in government for 12 years—the people opposite me sat in government for 12 years and had 17 plans and did not achieve any of this at all. The best they could do was to sell of Telstra, without the necessary checks and balances in place. (Time expired)