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

It's a stark contrast. Let's take, for instance, former Senator Conroy's pledge in April 2009 when he said that fibre-to-the-premises NBN would be finished by 2018 or Senator Conroy's claim in 2010 that the cost of connecting fibre to 93 per cent of homes and businesses wouldn't exceed $43 billion. Fast forward to 2013 and, after more than $11 billion had been committed by Labor, only 51,000 premises were connected. Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, in 2010, said that 1.3 million premises would be able to connect to the NBN fibre network by June 2013. In June 2013, was it 1.3 million premises? No. The actual result was 35,000—just a slight shortfall! The record of the coalition is a good one. We're getting the NBN built.