Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It might be instructive to examine a couple of the Labor policies that were articulated by the Leader of the Opposition in the reply to the budget the other night. Let us talk about broadband. The Leader of the Opposition got up and made the extraordinarily populist claim that he will provide broadband to the whole of Australia. Do you know what he did? He talked about fibre to the node. What about all the other technologies that are available in Australia today? What about all the other technologies that are emerging in the provision of high-speed access to the web? The Leader of the Opposition did not mention them, did not consider them, did not think about it. It was a hastily concocted policy that was very, very narrow in its view, and it is one that Australia will not follow, no matter who is in government, because the private sector will provide all of the various options that are available to customers because they all have their place in the provision of high-speed broadband access. I think that is a damning indictment of the narrow thinking of the Australian Labor Party, and that is why they will not be in government in 2008.

We have two Queenslanders in the chamber at the moment. Under the Labor Party’s policy for child care, do you know how many centres we get in Queensland?

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