Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The Treasury secretary was on the panel that we appointed, which concluded that none of the private-sector proposals offered value for money. So we then moved through. We took the decision to build the NBN and we then commissioned an implementation study by McKinsey and KPMG, which concluded there was a strong and viable business case. That is a study of something like 500 pages. Those opposite have been wandering around the country saying that we decided to embark upon this, we did not have any advice, we did not have any analysis and we did not have any costings. We had all of those, and all of that is presented in the implementation study. It says the project can expect to earn rates of return of between six to seven per cent. That gives us enough to pay back the cost of funds over time and to pay back the taxpayer.

But with any major investment of course there is a risk. There is always a risk with any major undertaking that a government enters into, and the Treasury is logically saying to the government, as they have done and will continue to do: ‘This is a very important project for Australia. You are going to get value for money. We do need it to lift our productivity. But what we have to do is work our way through all the issues.’

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