Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I simply remind the honourable senator opposite that hyperbole is never a substitute for facts. The simple facts are these. Labor missed every single one of its NBN rollout targets. Let me remind the Senate of that: every single Labor target for the NBN rollout was missed, was not achieved and was not delivered, whereas the coalition government has in fact been smashing the targets. Let's not forget that, under Labor, the NBN fell 83 per cent short of its 2013 rollout target. So it failed to deliver that which it promised the Australian people by not just one or two per cent—a rounding error—but 83 per cent.

You would think that the Australian Labor Party, clothed with that shameful record, would have some sense of decency and seek to sidestep any debate about the NBN. But, in typical Australian Labor Party style, what they seek to do is mislead the Australian people. They do it time and time again. At the last election they did it so despicably with the 'Mediscare' campaign—a false and dishonest campaign seeking to mislead the Australian people—and now today they are doing it again with the NBN. Their policy was developed on the back of an envelope and, whilst they were in government, they failed to deliver by 83 per cent. However, I am pleased to report that, as we speak, 7,000 premises are being connected every working day.