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

The report did not even countenance the fact that the take-up rate was abysmal; that the CEO did not know how many customers he had and that it displayed a lack of competence which is almost incomprehensible. It is of great concern. We have a report that remains mute on the very issues of concern about which this parliament should be informed. We have a report that is about as relevant to this parliament as a travelogue of Sardinia. Really, Mr Deputy Speaker: if it is an item of importance, it is not referred to in the report; if it is an item of gratuitous waffle, it is there on page after page.

It serves little purpose to repeat the information and documentation that is available in the public domain. That is not the role of the committee. The role of this committee is to report in a timely way on those matters that are of importance to the parliament—and the matters that are of importance are the timing of the project, the cost of the project, the impact of the take-up rates on the revenue projections of the project—so that the parliament and the people of Australia can know how this project is progressing. We do not want hundreds of pages of gratuitous waffle.

This is a report that fails every test in relation to providing meaningful information on the largest infrastructure project in this country's history. We have the government and the CEO of NBN Co. attempting to deceive the Australian people with regard to the status of this project. We have a report that assists them in that deception and concealment. This report fails the test sadly. The parliament deserves timely and relevant information. Despite the best efforts of the coalition members in producing the minority report, this report in fact falls far short of what is required for a project of this size.

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