Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer her to the fact that the original cost of the National Broadband Network was $4.7 billion. Then it became a $43 billion project written on the back of an envelope. In yesterday’s summary of the business case, the total investment had increased to nearly $50 billion. It has now been asserted today by CEOs of 10 leading telcos, the Alliance for Affordable Broadband, that the true cost is closer to $55 billion. Doesn’t this further blow-out demonstrate the government is all announcement and no delivery, and cannot be trusted to get anything right?

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

I know the member for Wentworth is unhappy that the parliament has repudiated his entreaties to wreck the NBN, but his unhappiness is no excuse for coming into this parliament and just making stuff up, which is of course what the member for Wentworth has just done. I have said in this parliament on a number of occasions when the opposition have asked for more information about the NBN that there is no point providing it to the opposition. There is a point providing it to people of goodwill, like the crossbench representatives in this parliament, but there is no point providing it to the opposition because they will not care what it says; whatever it says, they are determined to wreck the NBN. We could not have a better example than what the member for Wentworth has just done in this parliament. The capital expenditure figure in the summary of the NBN business case released yesterday is $35.7 billion, and he knows it. And the capital expenditure figure is less than the earlier capital expenditure figure in the implementation study because capital costs have been changed by the deal with Telstra—the deal with Telstra that he wanted to fall over, the deal with Telstra he spent the last few days trying to wreck by holding up the structural separation bill.

I understand the member for Wentworth is embarrassed by and ashamed of his political failure this fortnight. We all understand the member for Wentworth was out there trailing his coat with the backbench; he was going to be the custodian of a big political victory for the Liberal Party in this parliamentary fortnight, and it has all ended in tears. But all ending in tears for the member for Wentworth does not justify making figures up. Anybody who wants the facts should go to the summary of the NBN business case, released yesterday.

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

Mr Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. Again it refers to the 10 CEOs of the Alliance for Affordable Broadband. Their statement says that the National Broadband Network will ‘increase the costs of basic services, directly affecting lower income households’. Will the Prime Minister guarantee that prices of basic services will not rise under the NBN?

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

I acknowledge that the Leader of the Opposition said he is relying on an assertion from elsewhere, but the assertion in his question is simply untrue. As the NBN summary business case released yesterday makes absolutely clear, the most basic service offering the cost in nominal terms remains the same, which of course means in real dollars it goes down over time, and the pro-competitive impact of structural separation means that costs for service offerings of greater bandwidth will go down over time. All you have to do is accept the proposition that competition is good, that competition makes a difference to price. If you accept that proposition, then of course competition through retail providers on the NBN is good for pricing. When you look at the broader service offerings, we will see reduced costs over time.

I would say to the Leader of the Opposition, how is it that he can explain in this parliament that Australians have one of the most expensive broadband systems in the world, and he thinks that it is not in any need of real reform. The Leader of the Opposition is exposed as a man with a plan to wreck but no plan to build. Despite that negativity, we will build the National Broadband Network; we will deliver to Australians the technology they need today and will need even more in the future.