John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Melbourne can carry on with that cacophony, but let us analyse what is really involved here. What you are doing is, in the words of ABN AMRO, taking the industry back 20 years to government provision, gold plating and restricted rollout. They are not my words; they are the words of one of the most respected economic analysts in Australia. That is what we are doing. There are two fundamental flaws. What Labor is proposing to do is to use $2.7 billion of the assets of future generations to fund provision that ought to be made by the private sector and, in the process, they are taking the regulation of this industry back 20 years.

I do not think that speaks of a party or group of men and women who have an idea of what we need in the future. Sure, broadband is important; there is no argument about that. The Leader of the Opposition got up and quoted me something that said broadband was important. That is not in debate. We are all in favour of broadband. But this side of Australian politics is not in favour of raiding the savings of our children and grandchildren in order to provide something that ought to be provided by the private sector through the normal operation of the market.

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