Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am afraid to say that the Leader of the Opposition is in a parallel universe—perhaps 'Conrovia', I think, is the best way to describe it. The nbn publishes its rollout figures every week. Under the Labor government, they were published as and when the minister saw fit; under this government, they are published every single week. In the last week, for example, it was reported to 18 February that 26,524 additional premises were covered by the network. Of those, about 14,000 additional connections were made.

The NBN is rolling out, as I said earlier. We have activated serviceable premises 10 times greater than the number we inherited at the election. The fact is that the NBN under its new management is meeting its targets. It will have services available in one in four Australian premises by 30 June and it estimates that two years after that, in 2018, we will have services available in three out of four premises.

The changes to the rollout design that the government undertook will see the project finish six to eight years sooner and at around $30 billion less cost. So the approach we are taking will see it completed sooner and at much less cost.

The Leader of the Opposition referred to copper, by which I assume he was referring to the fibre–to-the-node hybrid technology which is being used. The chief executive of the nbn, Mr Morrow, announced on 5 February that they had surveyed NBN users' satisfaction for the various technologies and found that the satisfaction for customers using fibre to the premises and fibre to the nodes was at exactly the same level.

The facts speak for themselves. The Leader of the Opposition can fool himself. We are living in the real world, and the nbn is getting on with the job.

Mr Shorten interjecting—

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