Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I note that the member for Perth was talking about copper, and of course the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Submarine Cable Protection) Bill is about submarine cables. As I was about to say earlier, Australia's regime has been praised as a global best practice example for the protection of submarine cables by the International Cable Protection Committee and APEC. While terror attacks on submarine cables have been relatively minimal and there is no shortage of infrastructure that terrorists may attack, fibre-optic cables hold a symbolic appeal, being the vehicle that delivers cyberspace to the masses worldwide and also the conduit for global financial transactions.

While it is likely for now that cable damage will simply remain accidental and rare, the coalition recognises that it is important to remain ready and proactive to ensure that the practice does not become a serious infrastructure threat. The coalition stands ready to advance the infrastructure required for the digital age.

I understand that while I was not in the chamber the member for Greenway took the opportunity to quote statements I had made previously about the NBN. I want to place it very clearly on the record that I have always supported a national broadband network. I have never supported Labor's version of NBN Co., which is a disgrace. It is a white elephant costing the Australian people billions of dollars more than it should. I refer, as the member for Greenway did, back to my days on the Brisbane City Council. We worked for many years on a business model. We proofed up that business model; we developed a financial model. We trialled the business model and we trialled a practical example of laying fibre across the city. We went out to tender. The grand cost, the great cost of fibring the whole of the Brisbane City Council area, was going to be covered by private enterprise, not by government. We were going to offer a ubiquitous broadband network across the city at no cost to the ratepayers of Brisbane.

What did the Brisbane City Council do when we heard that the Prime Minister at the time, Mr Rudd, had had a little thought bubble? We contacted Ministers Conroy and Albanese and offered them copies of our business model and our financial model. The response was silence—they were not interested in something that had taken more than six years to develop, that had been tested and proved; they were not interested in working with us to deliver a network at no cost to the ratepayers and taxpayers of this country. No, they preferred to spend $64 billion—plus, plus—on a project that was never going to work. I support a national broadband network; what I do not support is the absolute waste that the Labor government inflicted on the taxpayers of Australia and that future generations would have had to pay off. It is an absolute disaster and the service would be much better delivered by the private sector. Unfortunately we are too far down the track for that. I condemn the opposition for the appalling model that they developed and for their refusal to work with people like the Brisbane City Council. In fact, the minister at the time threatened to write retrospective legislation to stop us delivering our system. That was the sort of attitude this opposition had when they were in government. I commend the bill to the House.

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