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

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance. It is interesting to note that, when the Howard government was in power, we had a regime that delivered consistent surpluses year after year. We had a government that had the confidence of the Australian people. We had a government that people believed could deliver efficiently and effectively. But sadly, with the arrival of the Rudd and Gillard governments, there has been a loss of faith by the Australian people in the ability of their federal government both to deliver and to deal with imminent threats to the Australian economy. It is interesting to note that the shadow Treasurer highlighted the fact that it is this government and this Treasurer who present the greatest threat to the Australian economy. They have a complete inability to deal with Australia's economic challenges. On this Treasurer's watch we have seen an economy go from surplus to deficit, the levels of government debt reach record levels and this country plunge into deficit. In typical Labor fashion, this government has increased taxes, spent at record levels, wasted billions of dollars and plunged the country into a record $55 billion deficit. Labor is governing as they always do. They have not delivered a surplus since 1989, and this is simply business as usual for a Labor government.

We hear the Treasurer speak of future surpluses that are just over the horizon—' coming soon to a country near you'—but the reality is that he has not delivered a surplus, and I can tell you, Mr Deputy Speaker, that he will not deliver a surplus, because this government does not have the courage to ease spending, to pay back its debts and to bring the budget back into surplus. It is into tax grabs and debt financing rather than responsible economic management. If this government was fully focused on delivering a surplus, we would not need to increase the gross debt limit to $250 billion. This Treasurer is simply incapable of delivering a surplus that he speaks about in the future. By 2014, the government will be spending $20 million a day on interest payments alone, just to service its debt. This is money that could be going into roads, into schools, into better health services and into services for regional Australia.

One of the interesting risks to the Australian economy is a project that is being trumpeted by this government as the way of the future: the National Broadband Network. The potential for blowouts in costs and increasing burdens for taxpayers because of the National Broadband Network is greater than for any other project undertaken by a government in our history. There are already very bad warning signs—some very imminent threats—relating to the National Broadband Network. It is becoming clear that the NBN will never meet its IRR projections or its revenue projections, that it will be over cost and that it is not going to deliver the sorts of economic boosts that the government claims it will.

Let us go to the interesting point of the project's progress at the moment—the issue of time, which is so very important in the final cost at which this progress project would be delivered. Virtually every element of this project has been delayed. The Tasmanian rollout has been delayed 10 months, the completion of the first mainland sites has been delayed, NBN Co. have indefinitely suspended the tender process for contractors for infrastructure and now we have found that the second release-site stage has also been delayed. The $11 billion deal with Telstra has also been delayed—it is some six months behind schedule.

The NBN Co. is pointing the finger of blame for delays. The blame has been levelled at contractors, at the ACCC and at Telstra. These are all supposed to be reasons that the rollout is behind schedule. NBN Co.'s business case makes it clear that the rollout will have that impact on the project viability and the return.

It is interesting to note that, by 30 June 2012, the rollout is projected to reach 35,000 homes. But 15 months into the rollout, how many homes do we have connected? Instead of the 35,000 homes, do we have 10,000 homes connected? No, we do not have 10,000. Do we have 5,000 homes connected? No, we do not have 5,000. In fact, we have 607 homes connected to the NBN.

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