Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The National Broadband Network Co. has been working through it with members of parliament who are interested in the facts, briefing them on the facts. Given that there is commercial sensitivity about information that is in the National Broadband Network business case, it stands to very simple common-sense reasoning that some of this information is market sensitive. So the National Broadband Network Co. has been working with members of this parliament who are prepared to judge on the basis of the facts on the possibility of getting them briefings.

Of course, facts that the member who asked the question may be interested in have also been put into the public domain. In that regard I refer to a letter of 19 November signed by Mike Quigley, an expert in telecommunications, who is the CEO of the National Broadband Network Co. If the member asking the question is in any way interested in the facts, then she may be interested to know that the National Broadband Network Co., in its business case, will verify that the NBN can be built in a way which provides an internal rate of return higher than the current long-term government bond rate. What that means, of course, is that on its own, looking at the return of the NBN, it is a viable project. That is before you get to all of the economic benefits and all of the service delivery benefits. That means that in terms of the use of taxpayers’ money there will be a greater return than the long-term bond rate. That is, it is a better use of taxpayers’ money than investments that secure the long-term bond rate. So: viable—tick. The peak equity requirement of the project approximates that in the implementation study—and of course the implementation study is there in the public domain should the member want to read it.

The National Broadband Network Co. has verified that the total capital requirements are substantially below that predicted by the implementation study. That is good news. Of course, NBN Co. has verified that they have assumed a uniform national wholesale price. That is good news for responsible members of the parliament who represent regional constituencies and care about their access to voice services and internet services on the same basis wholesale-wise as the rest of the nation. And, NBN Co. has verified that the business plan projects that prices will be reduced over time. So to the member who asked the question, I would say to her that if she is truly interested she should have a look at the wealth of information in the public domain, absorb the facts from NBN Co. about what is in the national business model for NBN Co. and actually draw some conclusions based on those facts. But unfortunately I fear that the member who asked the question will not do any of that because she will follow the leader of the opposition down the road of wrecking, down the road of privileging his political interest over the national interest and down the road of being driven by the three-word slogan of ‘demolish the NBN’. Well, we will get on with the job, the patient work required to deliver this transforming infrastructure project for the nation.

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