Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

The National Broadband Network Companies Amendment (Commitment to Public Ownership) Bill 2024 reaffirms the government's commitment to ongoing public ownership of the National Broadband Network and to remove existing conditions that create a pathway to privatisation of this vital national infrastructure. The bill commits to keeping the NBN wholly owned by the Australian people, including a new section, 43A, to make clear parliament's intention that NBN Co will remain wholly owned by the Commonwealth. The bill removes current conditions that, once satisfied, would enable a future government to privatise the company.

The Albanese government's position on the NBN has been clear for more than three years. We took to the last election a commitment to keep the NBN in public ownership, to keep broadband affordable in Australia and to complete building a world-class fibre network. In 2022 we formalised this commitment in a statement of expectations for the NBN, and through this bill we are enshrining this commitment in law.

The government's position has broad support in the community across consumer groups, regional representatives and the telco sector. The shadow minister admitted in his speech on this bill that the opposition has been on notice since at least 2021 that the government was committed to keeping the NBN in public ownership—so they have had at least three years to come up with a position.

I'm happy to stand corrected, but we heard over 20,000 words spoken by the opposition on this bill but not the seven words that Australians want to hear: 'We support keeping NBN in public ownership.' The member for Bradfield, the person who declared the NBN was 'built and fully operational' in 2020—the first step in a sale process—finally admitted what we suspected all along: the opposition are not supporting this bill because they don't support keeping the NBN in public ownership. Only a Labor government will keep the NBN owned by the Australian people to continue to deliver affordable, accessible world-class broadband for Australia.

I thank all members for their participation in the debate on this legislation.

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