Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let us be clear about one thing. This National Broadband Network Financial Transparency Bill 2010 is not about accountability. The opposition cannot come into this House and say they support universal broadband, that they support equality of opportunity, when all that is being done here is simply a deliberate attempt to make sure that the NBN is not delivered to people in Riverstone in my electorate, is not delivered to people who have never had any proper access to internet in their own homes. You cannot come into this place and say that you support these objectives but you do not support the NBN. Why is that? Let us look at the other countries in the world and in our region who are doing this, let us look at how ICT is transforming people’s lives and their economies. I will talk in a few minutes about examples such as Korea. This is the model, this is the 21st century solution—not some 20th century solution for a problem that has not been fixed after 18 attempts by the opposition when in government. I also point out that the member for Wentworth mentioned the OECD report. The day that I take advice from an OECD report that tells us we should increase the GST will be a long day indeed. I also note that during the commentary on this debate we have had a lot of agreement with people like Carlos Slim. We had the richest telco bloke in the world come out and tell us he could build it for a lot less. I am not about to take advice from Carlos Slim, who ran Telmex, which is the only case that went to the WTO for anticompetitive conduct. I am not about to take advice on this point from either the OECD, which advises we increase the GST, or from people who have form in delivering anticompetitive conduct.

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