Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the NBN Co annual report for 2019-20. I have to say that the myths perpetuated in this report do not match the reality of what NBN Co is delivering on the ground, but I'm pleased to see that they've disclosed their remuneration. I couldn't see if they had disclosed specifically the bonuses, but it does put in context the importance of the information that is provided to us in this place.

We have seen in debates over the course of this week that NBN Co has been at the centre of a failure of accountability by the government. We've discussed the corporate plan, and here we have an opportunity to reflect on the annual report, which again does not demonstrate a delivery of the Australian government's commitments to the Australian community in relation to a fast and affordable broadband service. In the questions that the opposition have been asking of the government, we've been seeking information that was regularly published prior to the backflip on the previous position on copper. But today we find that the same information that NBN Co were happy to publish in documents like this annual report, their strategic plan and answers to questions on notice they are now claiming as commercial-in-confidence.

This is a ridiculous position for NBN Co and the government to take. This information shouldn't be commercial-in-confidence. It's actually about this government and NBN Co refusing to be accountable for their commitments to the Australian community about how many connections they would have over time but also how much money they have spent in delivering those commitments. In this report, can we find information about matters such as peak funding, cash flow profile, debt profile, cost blowouts, costs associated with Fletcher's copper backflip and how much of Prime Minister Morrison's broadband tax is actually going to go to regional Australia?

We should be looking to documentation like this annual report for transparent information about the delivery of this program, but we find day after day that when the government don't like the data, when the data and information requested by this parliament is inconvenient to the government, they are happy to hide it, but when the data does not pose an inconvenience they're happy to let it out. It doesn't tell the truth to the Australian people and the Australian users of telecommunications services and the National Broadband Network. In the annual report there should be transparent information about the nature of cost blow-outs and how they've occurred, but instead we've got a government that wants to see such information reclassified as commercial-in-confidence, so you might see the actual figures but you can't see a good explanation of the reasons.

Why would this government be concealing data that has previously been published? The simple reason is it's a failure of this government, who don't want to be scrutinised, and it's a failure of Minister Fletcher, who refuses to be accountable for his ongoing cost blow-outs. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.