Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Was he in the ALP? Yes, I think he was in the ALP. The member for Grayndler asked me whether he was in the ALP. I think he was, from memory, but I will go back and have a look at that. I must thank the member for Grayndler. He always thinks up my best lines for me. It is quite possible that the whips sent this dorothy dixer around to the member for Lilley by mistake.

The member for Lilley has been out there, day after day, demanding that the Future Fund be a locked box so that it cannot be raided. He is on the record, day after day, saying that. We have now got the member for Melbourne on the record, as late as today, saying that it has to be independent from political interference. His defence is that he gave that answer a week ago. If this opposition believed that this was such a great investment for the Future Fund, presumably they would believe that the guardians would see that for themselves. But no. They have stepped in themselves, they have done no financial due diligence, they have overridden the independence, they have raided the fund, they have said that this is not a loan, they have said that this can be done subsequently, and they have said that they reserve the right to do it over and over again.

Let me make this point: in relation to the inner cities and the suburbs where broadband is commercial, we now have at least two consortiums—Telstra and the G9—that want to build it because they think they can make a profit out of it. Nearly 50 per cent of the population can access even higher speeds of 12 to 20 megabits per second from ADSL2. Where it is not commercial for a private sector operator to do it is out in rural and remote Australia. The government has anticipated that and has set aside a communications fund of $2 billion to look after rural and remote Australia. The Labor Party wants to use taxpayers’ funds in an area where the private sector can make a profit out of it and take away taxpayers’ funds from the area where the private sector cannot make a profit out of it—out in rural and regional Australia. This is why I say that you cannot trust the Labor Party with money.

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