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

After six Labor years of chaotic mismanagement of the NBN, we hear this ludicrous suggestion from the shadow minister. The frank reality is that the rollout of the NBN has been transformed since the coalition government came to power—in every aspect. We inherited chaotic mismanagement from a government that had absolutely no idea what it was doing, and across all fronts—fixed line, fibre to the premises, fibre to the node, fixed wireless and satellite—the performance has been comprehensively transformed. The numbers are rising very sharply, with some five million people now able to connect. The numbers were in the order of a few hundred thousand when Labor left government. We inherited a staggering record of incompetence and mismanagement. We have systematically and steadily turned that around. How have we done that? We put in place a competent and experienced chair in Ziggy Switkowski. We put in place a competent and experienced management team—people who actually have experience in the telecommunications sector. What a good idea! They are led by Bill Morrow, who has led Vodafone in Australia and Vodafone businesses all around the world. We have got on with systematically delivering a rollout to meet the needs of Australians. Of course there is more work to do, but the rate of progress has absolutely transformed since the chaotic mess that we inherited from the Labor government. So I will not be accepting helpful suggestions from the shadow minister, because Labor has an extraordinary track record of incompetence in this area.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Attorney General's Portfolio

Proposed expenditure, $3,053,744,000

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