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

We have a CEO of the largest infrastructure project in the country who does not how many customers he has. I must say that is the level of competence you come to expect from this government and the NBN Co. I guess he had what you could term a 'Costa Rica moment'. You know Costa Rica—that small Central American country with 4.6 million people and the $40 billion of GDP that he forgot he was responsible for in his time at Alcatel. He had a Costa Rica moment. I anticipated that he could have such a Costa Rica moment, so prior to the committee I got my adviser to ring NBN and ask a very probing question. So he rang and asked, 'Could you tell me how many customers you have?' The answer came back, 'I don't know.' So not to be put off by this minor setback, he then said, 'Could you put me on to someone who can tell me how many customers you have?' The person at the other end of the phone not only did not know how many customers they had but also had no idea who in NBN Co. head office was responsible for knowing how many customers they had. So the CEO and NBN Co. head office do not know how many customers they have. That is the management control. We have no advice in this report.

Member for Chifley, do you not think that the report should have made some comment on how many customers the NBN has, given the significance—

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