Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Given that the government could not deliver on Fuelwatch and GroceryWatch, cannot build GP clinics on schedule, cancelled 220 of the childcare centres it had promised to build, could not safely put pink batts into roofs and wasted billions on overpriced school halls, why would anyone trust this government not to make a complete and utter shambolic mess of the National Broadband Network?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: there is just a wee bit of argument in there, in contradiction of standing order 100.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Noted. Of course, that then allows, as I have said earlier, for a wider response, directly relevant.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his very widely-drawn question. I say to the Leader of the Opposition that it is time to stop being stranded as human history marches past you. We could not have a better example of that than we have in this parliament today and into tonight. This parliament is poised to deliver the biggest micro-economic reform agenda in telecommunications that this nation has ever seen—a reform agenda 30 years in the making, a reform agenda actually based on competition policy. Competition—a word that used to mean something to the Liberal Party. Instead of just accepting that his strategy of wrecking and demolition has been exposed to all the world for what it is, instead of just accepting that in his negativity the Leader of the Opposition has lost, he is forcing this parliament into the sham of sitting through the night and tomorrow when he knows that this ends in victory for those who believe in the National Broadband Network and in defeat for the Leader of the Opposition and his negativity. In my answering this question, the Leader of the Opposition adds yet again to his tidal wave of negativity and his lack of vision for the future. What does the Leader of the Opposition stand for except ‘Stop this’, ‘End that’ and ‘Wreck the other’? Is he a man who has ever had a positive idea or plan for the nation’s future?

In this parliament today we are seeing on display the contest in Australian politics and the battle of ideas about this nation’s future: one side of the parliament, aided and facilitated by those who have got a vision for the country, delivering a transformative technology, the National Broadband Network; and the bitter and defeated, mired in their negativity, as human history marches past them. The Liberal Party, the party of the past; the Labor Party, delivering the technology of the future.

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the government’s progress in delivering competition in the telecommunications sector for the benefit of working Australians?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kingston for her question. Of course, as a South Australian originally, I know her electorate well. It is a growth corridor. It is a place where people go to raise their families. It is a place where people go to open their small businesses. It is a place where people go to often open small businesses from home. In order to do that, they need the power of national broadband. In pursuit of delivering national broadband, I welcome the support of the crossbenchers in this place and the Independents in the Senate for structurally separating Telstra—a reform of the telecommunications industry that this nation has wanted for 30 years. This reform is being delivered against the relentless negativity of the opposition—relentless negativity. It is remarkable to me that the other side of politics has missed the opportunity to be part of this historic reform.

The structural separation of essential services markets is Economics 101. Consequently there is no mystery why the Leader of the Opposition does not understand it. Let me quote to the parliament what Graeme Samuel said in the Wall Street Journal on 4 October:

The fundamental reforms proposed in the legislation … which will see Telstra separate its wholesale network operations from its retail operation—represent the most significant pro-competitive stance we have taken in this area certainly in Australia’s history and probably that has been seen in any other jurisdiction in the world.

Let us reflect on those words: ‘the most significant pro-competitive stance’—and the Liberal Party missed it. Menzies would be turning in his grave to see the Liberal Party of the modern age turn its back on microeconomic reform, turn its back on competition. But, of course, this is a start, and the journey to build the NBN continues. We will use this structural separation pathway to build the National Broadband Network as the Liberal Party gets mired in the past and chants to itself, the way we are seeing on display now.

Today the government is introducing another significant bill into the House that puts in place the regulatory framework for NBN Co. It establishes the governance, ownership and operating arrangements for NBN Co. It is building on what will be achieved through structural separation. What difference will this mean for Australians? We can put it in terms of faster internet speeds or we can just go to some examples. Some examples for farmers: ‘revolutionising the way they conduct their farms’—not my words but the words of the Chief Executive of the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association; revolutionising the way we deliver health care; and revolutionising the way businesses like a Korean language centre, which teaches children here and in Korea, can operate from a town like Gladstone. These are the transformative reforms of the future that the Labor Party, a party of the future, is delivering to Australians, and every step of the way we need to overwhelm the opposition, the party of the past—and of course, in this parliament, we have.