Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

They now say that it is $26 billion but when they first announced this project they could not put a high enough figure on it. It was $43 billion, all right, and they boasted about that, but now it is down to $26 billion. What is the difference? The difference is that they are saying, ‘We’ll get private investment into this.’ They say that the costs are not as high as they were going to be but I have just proved that all these blowouts will push it past that figure.

And the government are not going to get any private investment; that is a field of dreams. No investor worth their salt would come near this company—not now and not in five years, when the government pretend they will privatise this company. The government were shameless in announcing that it would cost $43 billion. The figures are rubbery. They are just playing with figures on a day-to-day basis, hoping to get through the politics of the matter each day. But it is all catching up with them, and they know it.

Here is another possibility regarding the NBN that we can garnish from the McKinsey report. I happen to think the McKinsey report was not too bad at all. It told us a lot. I cannot wait now for the business plan to come out next week, because we got so much information from the McKinsey report we are sure to get more from the business plan. I am not listening to Senator Conroy saying it all stacks up. He will say anything on a day to day basis to get through the politics of the day.

We have proved the misrepresentations and falsehoods time and again. I should add that this does not just come from Senator Conroy; it comes from the Prime Minister herself. She stood up in the parliament last week and said that the connection of the NBN to 90 per cent of households—if it gets to 90 per cent—is going to bring internet prices down. Do you know what the McKinsey report told us? It told us that internet prices will have to go up every year to keep the viability of the company. This is a company that is going to be increasing its internet prices to Australian households. That is the way monopolies behave, by the way. There is nothing unusual about that. For it to maintain its viability, the characteristic of any monopoly is to increase prices year in, year out. Yet we have the Prime Minister telling us that the prices will fall. There is a conflict there—and I know where the truth lies.

It just so happens that only 43 per cent of Australian households at the very low income level of $40,000 to $45,000 are connected to the internet. The main reason the rest of them are not connected is cost. It is a cost factor. That is why they do not take up the internet. So now the government is going to take any competitiveness out of the market. It is going to take away any chance these lower income households have of connecting to the internet. It will strip that away from those lower income households because prices on the internet will go up every year. That is according to the McKinsey report and we will see it next week in the business plan. Prices are not coming down.

I really think that Senator Conroy must have been dreading the day that he jumped on the former Prime Minister’s aeroplane just so he could talk to him and cook up this new scheme. Can you imagine it—two big egos at high altitude? The greatest infrastructure plan in Australia’s history, they were going to dub it when the plane landed. It is uncosted, to date. Senator Conroy has been left holding the baby, not even valiantly. He is becoming shrill. He is becoming manic about his defence in all of this. But it is also irresponsible. There is no accountability. It verges on corrupt behaviour towards taxpayers’ money. His fortunes are hooked to this, as is the government’s, because this is the biggest lie since the ETS. In fact, this is another ETS. In the first term you had your ETS and now you have your NBN. Remember the day Senator Wong stood there, loud and vicious? It is a bit like she was today—loud, tough, aggressive Senator Wong defending the ETS to the death. All the rhetoric was blown up to the point where it was said, ‘This is the greatest moral challenge of our time.’ Then the truth dawned. Then they lost a Prime Minister over it. But they have learnt nothing. They have a new ETS around their necks. They are at it again—a minister and a Prime Minister—and their rhetoric matches that of the ETS. Where the ETS had the greatest moral challenge of our time, we have a new one. The new Prime Minister has said the NBN will bring internet prices down. That is the new big claim: it will bring prices down. We know it will not. This will all finally flush through the system. You had your moment in the sun about the ETS. We sceptics on this side were feeling a bit battered and bruised at certain points, but then the truth won out. You got mugged by reality. The McKinsey study has proved it all to us. Perhaps the $25 million was well spent. Perhaps I was a bit hard on McKinsey and Co. I see it has another job. I do not know how many millions that will get it, but—boy! —McKinsey and Co. do very well out of the government. Perhaps the $25 million was well spent.

If you think the pink batts scheme was idiotic and Mr Garrett irresponsible, and if you think the Julia Gillard memorial halls were negligent waste, you have not seen anything yet. This tops the lot. They are dubbing it the greatest infrastructure project in Australia, at $43 billion, and that does not even include the certain blowouts that are on their way. This is beyond farcical. We have a minister, more known for his factional capabilities than his managerial capabilities, who is completely delusional. He has lost all sense of national responsibility. Perhaps he has been told to do it. And then all the Chauncey Gardeners follow in from the other side. They just want to be here. They espouse the lines of the NBN like they did with the ETS. They are all Chauncey Gardeners. They do not care about the reality of spending $43 billion of taxpayers’ money. They are given their lines by the whip. They cannot even deliver them with any excitement, to tell you the truth. There is a lot of drabness coming from the other side. There is no sense of national responsibility. In the end, all this will implode on them. We will keep chipping away and in the end it will all implode.

The media are picking it up. The leaders of society in responsible positions are now coming out. The responsible journalists are all coming out now. That is just the beginning, and then it will sweep through the community because they will see you spending $43 billion, Senator Sherry, whilst their living costs are going up. They will be wondering why you are wasting their money. They could not put up with the pink batts, they could not put up with the memorial halls and they will not put up with the broadband if they think it is waste—and it is going to prove to be wasteful.

This is a debate that has been going on for the last two weeks of parliament and it is really starting to filter through. Don’t think it is not, Senator Sherry. You can live in denial. I think you have even given up on your own government. You are bored with government. The great honour and responsibility of government is being wasted by those Chauncey Gardeners on the other side. We always believed in what we did.