Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, the member for Melbourne is comfortable with that—very good. I seek leave to move amendments (1) to (4) and (8) to (15) together.

Leave granted.

I move:

(1)    Clause 3, page 3 (lines 8 to 22), omit paragraph (1)(b).

(2)    Clause 4, page 5 (lines 9 to 26), omit the dot points.

(3)    Clause 5, page 7 (line 2), omit the definition of Commonwealth ownership provisions.

(4)    Clause 5, page 7 (lines 14 to 16), omit the definitions of declared pre-termination period and declared sale deferral period.

(8)    Clause 43, page 37 (lines 5 to 22), omit the dot points.

(9)    Subdivision A of Division 2 of Part 3, page 38 (line 3) to page 39 (line 5), omit the Subdivision.

(10)  Heading to Subdivision B of Division 2 of Part 3, page 39 (lines 6 and 7), omit the heading, substitute:

Subdivision B—Productivity Commission Inquiry

(11)  Clauses 47 and 48, page 39 (line 8) to page 41 (line 16), omit the clauses.

(12)  Clause 49, page 41 (lines 19 to 22), omit subclause (1), substitute:

        (1)    This section applies if it is proposed to enter into an NBN Co sale scheme and there has not been a previous reference to the Productivity Commission under this section.

(13)  Clauses 50 and 51, page 44 (line 14) to page 46 (line 4), omit the clauses.

(14)  Clause 52, page 46 (lines 10 and 11), omit “unless the Commonwealth ownership provisions have ceased to have effect”, substitute “until 15 sitting days after the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Ownership of NBN Co has reported to both Houses of the Parliament”.

(15)  Clause 53, page 46 (lines 16 and 17), omit “unless the Commonwealth ownership provisions have ceased to have effect under section 51”, substitute “until the completion of 15 sittting days after the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Ownership of NBN Co has reported to both Houses of the Parliament, under paragraph 3(1)(b) of Schedule 2, on the Committee’s examination of the report of the Productivity Commission inquiry mentioned in section 49”.

These amendments all deal with the provisions in the bill that are designed to make it almost impossible for the Commonwealth to sell the NBN. Essentially, the bill currently provides that the NBN cannot be sold until it is complete. That will take many years, and it may be that no government will complete the NBN. Indeed, the general view in the telecommunications industry is that this project is so misconceived and so expensive in terms of the required capital investment that it will never be completed. Tying the hands of future governments in this way is simply not good practice. We seek to delete those provisions in the bill that seek to tie the Commonwealth’s hands. In so doing, we seek to eliminate the attempt by the government and the Greens to make this massive government-owned monopoly be permanently and perpetually in government ownership.

The simple reality is that Australia does not need another massive government-owned telecommunications monopoly. We had one of those—it was called Telstra. Before that, it was called Telecom. Before that, it was the Postmaster General’s Department or a division thereof.

See this speech in context