Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is always pleasurable follow Senator Bernardi because it is interesting to listen to him. He actually tends to believe what he says; he is not going on some debating point that he has been given 10 minutes before he speaks. A lot of the coalition senators are given a few little debating points to go on. They gesticulate a lot and confect a little indignation—but not Senator Bernardi; Senator Bernardi firmly believes it. I do not say that Senator Bernardi is correct—in fact, I would question a number of the conclusions that he has come to today—but he is one of the few on that side who show some passion on some of the issues that have been debated in this Senate over the past year or so. He is not like some of the actors and actresses that we have seen parade before us time and time again.

This government is about the big picture. There are a number of areas where we are in stark contrast with the coalition. This is not only on the NBN; it is on infrastructure spending and on the mineral resources rent tax—three big differences of ideological opinion between this side of the chamber and that side. That is a good thing for Australian politics. This is not Tweedledum and Tweedledee; we do not believe what they believe and vice versa.

As has been outlined today in the answers to questions—not only by the minister responsible, Senator Conroy, but by other ministers as well: Wong, Carr, Sherry—there are benefits of going down this particular track. Each minister outlined what it is going to mean for the economy of this country. Each minister outlined what it will mean for the productivity of this country and what benefits there will be for this country.

Prior to the 2007 election, in what I think was the seat of Calare a public meeting was held with the then shadow minister, Senator Conroy, our Labor candidate, Bob Debus, and me. We held it in the middle of winter in Bathurst. If anybody has been out in the central west of New South Wales in winter, it is very, very cold—probably like any part of country and regional Australia. On this night we wanted to discuss our communications policy, our NBN plan. To my amazement, on that freezing cold night we had 400 people turn up at seven o’clock. It was so cold that we had to get the plane out very quickly because the ice was starting to make us think that we would not be able to leave. Four hundred people attended that meeting and 400 people from that district wanted to know how quickly they could get access to the internet. And why did they want to know that? They were not young men and women who seemed to be addicted to Twitter or Facebook. These were business men and women from small business through to the medical areas that wanted to know what the incoming Labor government would do to make them more efficient, more productive, more connected to their customer base and more connected to consumers. Four hundred people turned up and they wanted us to have this plan go ahead—not to have the delays that are being advocated by the coalition. Those men and women in that one country town in western New South Wales wanted us to go ahead with our plan. We have explained it up hill and down dale.

The fact is that the coalition does not like it. I cannot help that. We have been upfront everywhere we can, except for commercial-in-confidence matters. We have said what we are going to do. Everybody knows what we are going to do, because we have the big picture, unlike what the coalition has been consumed with for most of its political history. If it has a big plan, if it has a big picture—whether it is standard railway gauges or the Snowy Mountains scheme—where is the coalition? It is always looking for the small picture. It does not have the big picture. It does not have the broad canvas for the Australian nation.