Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not mind a few interjections. I am happy to have a few intelligent interjections, not just a long stream of consciousness from Turnbullistan!

You talk about transparency. We have been seeking from nbn co information about the state of the copper wire in my electorate, which previously had parts of the fibre-to-the-premises rollout that were taken off and later put back in. But now we are going to be subject to fibre to the node, the 20th-century technology rather than 21st-century technology. We know, anecdotally and from what we have seen of the copper pits when they have been opened, that we are going to have a major problem with that copper, so we ask nbn co over and over again what they can tell us about this copper wire that they are proposing to utilise. What can they tell us about its status, its standing and its reliability? They refuse to disclose any information. Either they have not got that information and have not required Telstra to hand over that information, which is completely unacceptable, or they are acting completely in the dark and are proposing to spend $56 billion rolling out infrastructure without any understanding of the nature of the copper wire over which they are proposing to deliver these services. This is a completely unacceptable situation.

The minister has been saying much about how they have got this project underway and have been able to turn it out so rapidly. Be reasonable. In six years we devised the project. We did the work to show why in fact we needed an NBN. You might recall that the Leader of the Opposition at the time actually opposed the whole notion of an NBN and that we would have a systematic rollout of 21st-century telecommunications infrastructure across the country. He actually opposed that. It did take time to get that project up and running. It did take time to begin the rollout and to develop the economic models. But then, of course, once you start rolling it out, the speed at which it would—

Honourable members interjecting—

I will leave my comments there.

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