Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

Is there a more depressing job than being Labor's shadow minister for communications, trying to defend Labor's disastrous record of NBN incompetence and trying to distract people from the relentless and ever-increasing NBN rollout? The member for Blaxland dutifully performed this thankless task for three years, trying to be continually gloomy when the light of broadband availability shone ever more brightly across the land. On 17 September 2015 he brought forward a matter of public importance debate—'the Prime Minister's mismanagement of the NBN'. At that time there were 1,291,635 premises that were able to connect. He had another go on 21 October 2016. 'The Prime Minister's second-rate NBN' was the topic of the MPI that he brought forward then. At that time, 1,374,408 premises were able to connect.

But he did not give up. He was persistent, even in the face of the facts. On 10 February 2016, he brought forward yet another MPI, 'The Prime Minister is failing Australians with his second-rate NBN'—again, the member for Blaxland determinedly running the ideological line in the face of all the evidence. By that point, the number of premises that could connect was 1,719,122. You will note that, as each MPI comes passed, the number of premises has increased by many thousands. So, by 3 May 2016, the dutiful old member for Blaxland, still trying to ignore the ever-better story on the NBN and still trying to tell a very different story, brought forward yet another MPI. His topic was 'The government's failure to deliver on the NBN for Australians'. At that point, there were 2,428,606 premises that were able to connect.

The member for Blaxland naturally could not wait to get this smelly dead cat of a shadow portfolio off his shoulders, and finally he escaped. He is now happily off doing trade investment and resources and there is a new shadow minister, the member for Greenway—full of enthusiasm; full of bold new ideas like having an MPI on the topic of 'The government's second-rate NBN failing Australians'. If we now look at the numbers, there are 3,207,727 premises able to connect. So the fact is that the number of premises which can connect is increasing rapidly and remorselessly, even as Labor, with their ideological blinkers, try to cling to set of facts which are utterly different to the reality.

The reality is this: Labor has a hopeless track record on delivery, including a particularly hopeless track record on the delivery on the National Broadband Network. The reality is that the coalition came to government with a clear plan. We are executing on that plan and we are getting the NBN rolled out. The third reality is that Labor has no clue what it is going to do about the NBN, as we saw demonstrated comprehensively during the 2016 election.

Let us remind ourselves of Labor's record on delivery across a whole range of areas. How many naval ships or submarines did Labor order in government? None. Let's talk about delivery. Remember the member for Lilley coming into this place and saying, 'The four years of surplus I announce tonight'? How many were delivered? None. What did he deliver? Absolutely nothing. Remember Fuelwatch and GroceryWatch? What was delivered there? Nothing. Remember the housing insulation program? Sadly, we know what was delivered there. Tragically, four young Australians died and hundreds of houses were burnt, because of this Labor Party's hopeless track record on delivery. Remember the mining tax—the tax that delivered no revenue? Remember the GP superclinics? At the 2010 election, Labor promised there were going to be 28, and there was one operational. Remember ending the double drop-off? In the 2007 election, Labor promised 260 childcare centres—the double drop-off delivered by that public policy genius, the member for Adelaide. How many of those 260 had been built by February 2010? Three. This is the Labor Party, with their track record of being utterly hopeless at delivery.

And when it came to the National Broadband Network they were on form; they were on song. They produced a delivery stuff-up right up there with the levels of excellence in all of the other portfolios. Let us remember what they promised in the 2007 election. They promised that there would be a fibre-to-the-node network to 98 per cent of the population and it would be delivered in partnership with the private sector. They could not deliver it—abject ignominious failure. In April 2009 there was another plan—fibre to the premises. It was going to be 12.2 million premises—but, again, 'Don't worry; there is going to be private sector involvement.' Of course, by 2010, they discretely slipped out the news that the private sector consultants they had retained, McKinsey and KPMG, had said, 'Actually, no; the private sector won't be touching this with a barge poll. So the taxpayer is up for every dollar of the National Broadband Network.' That is just one other example of Labor's delivery incompetence.

But what did they actually deliver by September 2013 when they shuffled crippled off the national stage and left us to pick up their mess? I will tell you what they had delivered. They had spent $6 billion and they had connected barely 50,000 premises. That is an ignominious record of incompetence, an ignominious record of hopelessness, at delivery. We inherited this chaotic shambolic mess from this pack of incompetents on the other side, and we were charged with getting it under control.

We established a competent management team. Bizarrely, under the previous government, there was virtually nobody on the NBN board who actually had any familiarity with telecommunications. That is why we put in Ziggy Switkowski, former chief executive of Optus and former chief executive of Telstra and one of the most experienced telecommunications executives in Australia. We also put in Bill Morrow as the chief executive—again, a very experienced telecommunications executive. We developed a credible plan. Out of the shambles that we inherited, we developed the multi-technology mix, using the most cost-effective combination of fibre to the premises, fibre to the node and HFC cable, rolled out faster and more affordably—limiting public investment to $29.5 billion—and yet 90 per cent of fixed-line premises will get 50 megabits per second.

How have we operated since we came to government and once we had control of the NBN? There has been transparency, there has been weekly reporting on the rollout—because we have got nothing to hide, unlike the previous government—and we now see that for seven quarters in a row the National Broadband Network has met its delivery targets and its financial targets. How may times did that happen under the previous Labor government? Not once. And this shambolic pack of people, who are completely incompetent of delivery, the Labor Party, bizarrely keep coming back to this topic rather than slinking away from it in shame—which, frankly, is what they ought to be doing.

What did we see during the 2016 election? After all kinds of chest-beating and bold promises on the NBN—they were going to fix it all, they were going to deliver fibre to the premises everywhere, and it was going to be fantastic—what did they actually announce as a policy? Listen to this, because it is pretty good, they were going to spend not one dollar more than the coalition. But, here is the good bit, they were going to connect two million more homes by fibre to the premises. A little factoid for the Labor Party: a fibre-to-the-premises home costs $4,400—these are numbers from the corporate plan—fibre to the node costs $2,300, roughly half. Yet our friends in the Labor Party, these people with a chaotic record of incompetence with the NBN, thought it was a good idea to tell the Australian people that their plan for the NBN in 2016 was to spend not one more dollar but you could have two million more fibre-to-the-premises homes. It just does not work. It was a completely incredible and completely implausible policy, because the frank reality was, as they effectively admitted by putting that policy out, they had no idea what to do.

Thankfully for the Australian people, there is a government which is committed to the NBN, which is committed to delivering the NBN, which is populated by people who have serious business experience, which has put in place a competent management team, which has a credible plan and which is systematically rolling out the National Broadband Network. That is what we are doing. It is a story of it of success. There is a lot more to do, and we are doing the job. We are delivering.

See this speech in context