Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

Commercial-in-confidence —everything that the Australian Labor Party does not want people to know about this project is commercial-in-confidence. We have the member for Chifley chiming in there. Everything that people are not supposed to know is commercial-in-confidence. We look at issues such as cherry picking that are coming up in the legislation before this House. Why should a project of this magnitude—if it is as good as it is supposed to be, if it is going to deliver the overwhelming benefits that are supposed to be delivered—need to be protected from competition by competing technologies? Why does it need to be protected from competition with Telstra’s copper line network? Why does it need to be protected from competition with the HFC network? Why does it need to be protected from alternative fibre operators who might be operating in competition with the NBN?

In fact, that very same business plan, shrouded in secrecy as it is, indicates that the return falls to very unacceptable levels. From what I would say is a very miserly internal rate of return of seven per cent—which is pretty much the best case that the government dare put its name to—it falls down to five per cent, hardly a return that would be prompting an investment of this magnitude in a project of this magnitude. A return of five per cent would not even cover the interest on the project, and you actually have to protect it from competition.

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