Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There was no speech? All right so there was no speech on these amendments and the only time we see any animation is when the minister lurches up here to pick on the poor old member for Shortland, who was just talking about her constituents and their need for broadband. How could that not relate to the amendments? Your time was consumed as well, Mr Deputy Speaker Goodenough. I am reminded by my good friend the member for Throsby—I kept on thinking about Port Kembla and steel as I am due to go to Port Kembla, but that is another story—of The Sydney Morning Herald's headline: 'Trials point to cheaper fibre option.' And you are embarking on a copper network and this hotchpotch of pay-TV cables. The minister comes here, gives no speech and guts the bill, because we all know they will end up building fibre. That is what they will end up doing, because that is the future option. That is what Labor was going to do and what everybody in the public wants you to do. But this government were so bent on destroying Labor's legacy that they embarked on a plan that is costlier, inhibits internet speeds and will cost the taxpayer dearly. The minister expects us to take all this lying down. We will not. We will stand up for the National Broadband Network.

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