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

I do thank the Leader of the Opposition for that question. It does take an extraordinary lack of historical knowledge to be suggesting that this government has anything to apologise for when it comes to the rollout of the NBN. When you look at the numbers, the numbers are quite instructive. The numbers are quite instructive. Let's look at the NBN's corporate plan, published in December 2010. In December 2010, when the Prime Minister was either Mr Rudd or Ms Gillard—one or the other—the number of premises that were supposed to be covered by 30 June 2011 was 223,000. What they actually delivered was 10,575. On 30 June 2012, what did these rollout geniuses from Labor deliver when they had promised 496,000? They delivered 95,799. What did they deliver on 30 June 2013, when they had promised 1.7 million? They promised 1.7 million. This wasn't off the cuff, by the way; this was in their business plan. They promised 1.7 million by 30 June 2013, and they delivered 280,000. Now, that is not a high distinction.

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