Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased, as a member of the Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network, to speak in this debate in the House today and to make some comments about the recommendations ,but also some reflections as a rural and regional member of this parliament. Given the serious and urgent issues about broadband, wireless and mobiles or any sort of communication in rural and regional Australia, I think those experiences from the electorate of Farrer should be reflected in the context of today's debate.

The member for Chifley talked about this side of the House attacking NBN Co., making negative comments and denigrating the process. What I would say is that I am actually tired of making excuses for NBN Co. There can always be reasons why things do not get done on time, presented on time or provided in a thorough enough manner, but what the government seems to be doing over and over is just making excuse after excuse for this incredibly well-resourced company, which is moving towards using $50 billion of public taxpayers' funding.

I know the issues are that it is off balance sheet, it is an investment, it will provide a return and so on. It is rationalised away that it is not really government spending to the level that you might think. But it will not provide a return unless people pay for the NBN—what they believe the NBN is worth and what the NBN actually charges them as householders. We continually receive information that indicates that those costs are going to be quite high. Why would you, as a householder, pay $100, $120 or $150 a month for something that you are already getting for quite a bit less than that? Sure, there might be a few more bells and whistles; but, if you do not want those bells and whistles, why should you pay more? There is just so much lose, lose, lose in this for the constituents that I represent.

The opposition spokesperson for communications, the member for Wentworth, put it very well in his remarks a little while ago when he said that, under a coalition, we would not target areas that already have fast broadband. It seems like a no-brainer but it is one that the government and NBN Co. cannot get right. We would target underserved areas first. We would not overbuild high-speed networks that already have high fibre cable—

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