Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank my colleague from New South Wales for the question. There is absolutely no breach of election commitment here. I think those opposite are having difficulty understanding the difference between equity and a loan. We have said there would be a cap on government equity contributions of $29.5 billion. It remains the fact that the cap on equity is $29.5 billion. It has always been clear that NBN would be required to borrow additional funds. NBN are borrowing additional funds and they are doing so from the Commonwealth government. We, quite rightly, ensured that NBN obtained an indicative credit rating for the organisation and what NBN received was sound. But we took the very logical decision that if the Commonwealth was able to borrow the funds at lower rates then that made good sense for the taxpayer and good sense for NBN. There has been absolutely no change to the cap on Commonwealth equity of $29.5 billion. Those opposite do not understand the difference between equity and a loan. Let me explain that an equity is different to a loan. We have also indicated that NBN will be required to go to the open market to refinance that loan and that is something that we have been entirely up-front about.