Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

Well might the minister say, 'Welcome to the real world.' We say, 'Welcome to the world of broken promises.' Today is a day that the government will rue for a very long time. Today the Abbott government is breaking one of the biggest and most important promises that it made in the last election campaign. This government has been in office for barely three months—a little over 90 days—and yet it is breaking promises left, right and centre: first on debt, then on boats, two weeks ago on education and now on the NBN. This is a betrayal, a broken promise that will hang like an albatross around this minister's neck. It is an unforgivable broken promise and this government will be punished by the electorate for it. Remember the press conference with Sonny Bill Williams in April of this year? A press conference with the virtual Sonny Bill, the now minister and the now Prime Minister at which the Prime Minister uttered these immortal words: 'Under the coalition by 2016 there will be minimum download speeds of 25 megabits,'—not anymore. And these: 'We will deliver a minimum 25 megabits by the end of our first term.' Today they are breaking that promise.

Before the election they promised: 'No excuses.' Today we get a tawdry list of excuses from this minister. Before the election they said: 'No surprises.' Today we get the worst of all surprises from this government. Remember the words of the Prime Minister when he said, 'I do not intend on making promises I won't keep.'? He has broken a whopper today. It was one of the biggest and most important promises that the government made—and the minister, from the look on his face, knows it—to the Australian people at the last election. What it means is that you cannot believe anything that this government says—not on debt, not on boats, not on education, not on the NBN. Nothing they say is worth two bob.

Here is the truth. I seek leave to table the NBN Co.'s assessment of the coalition's broadband policy prepared during the caretaker period.

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