Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance regarding the National Broadband Network. Who could forget that famous flight when Senator Conroy and Kevin 747 jetted off into the sunset on the prime ministerial jet, and I guess champagne was flowing, and canapes were being served, and the NBN was being hastily conceived on the back of a beer coaster! The NBN was planned by Senator Conroy and Kevin 747 on the back of a beer coaster! They didn't know how much it would cost. They didn't really know why they were doing it. They didn't know what the outcome would be. All they wanted was a headline, and a very expensive headline it would be.

We had the promise of this mystical network that was going to be unaffordable to Australian telecommunications consumers. We had promise after promise by Labor and a total lack of delivery. Who could forget the trial in Hobart? The towns of Smithton, Midway Point and Scottsdale were going to become economic powerhouses under the supercharging of Kevin's NBN, but it didn't happen. Smithton, Midway Point and Scottsdale are nice little towns, nice places, but still not supercharged by the NBN. The NBN under Labor certainly set a record. It set a record by missing every target that it ever set for itself. It missed every single target. We had a situation where the massive cost of this was going to push up the price of broadband out of the reach of Australian consumers.

This government takes a much more realistic approach. We are about delivering a mix of technologies that are appropriate. We are about delivering an appropriate investment that's going to meet this nation's telecommunications needs and going to deliver the high-speed broadband that is required, but in the context of budget responsibility. Labor doesn't have any notion of budget responsibility. If Labor's plans were implemented, the cost to consumers would increase by $43 every month.

When you look at the break-up of the customers to the NBN, it's very interesting. Where are most people connecting? Are they taking the high-flying packages? Are they having a cost-doesn't-matter approach to hooking up to the NBN? I can say that they are not. Some 28.5 per cent of consumers are on a package that is 12 megabits or less; 55.6 per cent of consumers are on a package that's 25 megabits; 4 per cent—only 4 per cent—are taking a 50 megabit package; and less than 0.01 per cent are adopting a package over 100 megabits. So, we have a situation where 84 per cent of consumers are taking up plans that are 25 megabits or less.

Under the government's NBN rollout, we are seeing massive improvements in the telecommunications experience for people in regional and rural areas. Those on the fixed wireless network are very happy with the quality of the service that they are achieving. Under the Sky Muster program, we are increasing data limits. We are making it more flexible for those people outside the reach of the fixed line and the wireless footprint. It is all about making an investment that is appropriate.

In this House today, we have had a lot of discussion on power prices. One of the key factors that has driven up power prices is an inappropriate investment in the poles and wires, making power unaffordable to so many households. In exactly the same way, an inappropriate investment in the NBN would have made broadband services unaffordable to Australian households as well. This government is about an appropriate investment, an investment that is absolutely sound from a financial point of view and an investment that will deliver the sort of flexibility that is needed to achieve Australia's broadband needs. We are approaching this in a sensible, well-managed way. Labor missed every target it set for itself. Their rollout was an absolute disaster. (Time expired)

Mr Stephen Jones interjecting—

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