Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the comments of Natalie Osborne of Kiama in my electorate following the destruction of her nature strip by the National Broadband Network installers. She said:

They have ripped up my whole nature strip …. It’s a massive amount of work, people have no idea how much destruction it’s going to be. Here it is just a very small coastal town so the destruction in a city suburb is going to be unbelievable.

Does the Prime Minister guarantee that all damage to property will be made good to the satisfaction of the householders at the expense of the NBN Company?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

The House will come to order or I will give members the opportunity to go out and reinstate nature strips with the equipment that the gardeners cannot use during sitting times. Joe, I thought that was one of my better lines and you ignored it. I am really disappointed.

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

I would say the following to the member for Gilmore: I understand she comes to this parliament and does seek to represent the concerns of her constituents in this parliament. That is why, of course, she was such a big endorser of the government’s trade training centres policy: because of the benefits of the trade training centre to her electorate; and that is why she must have been so distressed to see that the Leader of the Opposition wanted to cut that funding. Consequently, because I do believe that the member for Gilmore does seek to raise concerns on behalf of her constituents, I would say to her that if there is a specific matter she wants me to look at, then I will look at it.

But I will also say to the member for Gilmore—and to this parliament more generally when we look at the challenges of the future for this country—we need to build infrastructure. We need to build the NBN. We need to renovate ports and we need to renovate the rail system. We need to build roads. As every Australian knows as a simple matter of common sense, when you build complex infrastructure projects that does cause some dislocation as infrastructure projects are being rolled out. I live in Melbourne’s west and I can tell you about infrastructure projects on the Princes Freeway and the Westgate Bridge. Of course, when they were being constructed, there were consequences.

Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order on relevance, I just want the guarantee, Prime Minister, that it will be fixed.

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

I was asked by the member for Gilmore about a matter in her electorate and I am making the simple common-sense point that Australians would understand—which is, when you are building the nation and building infrastructure then obviously building requires you to do things. It is just like when you are building a major road project—for a period of time people suffer the constraints on their ability to use that highway because part of it is fenced off for the construction. The same things will happen as we roll out the National Broadband Network. I am going to be very transparent about that.

I would also say to the Liberal Party: is its advocacy in this place that we somehow put a dome over the nation now, that we freeze it in time, that we pickle it, that we keep it in its current form and we do not move one brick, we do not create one road, we do not build one bit of rail track, we do not change one port, we do not engage in one school construction and we do not roll out the NBN because people do not want to see the natural consequences of construction? Is that really the position—the luddite position—of a political party that calls itself the Liberal Party?

There has been a theme in these questions. Apparently they do not like cable. Do they want us to take all the electricity wires down? Apparently they do not like wiring. Do they want all the telephones wires gone? Apparently they do not like progress. Which part of time would they like us to go back to—1960, 1930 or 1910? Which age would they pick as the party of the past? This does not befit a political party that calls itself the ‘Liberal Party’. If they want to go out and rename their political party the ‘Luddite Party’ then they should do it by the time this parliament next convenes and at least then they will be honest with the Australia people about what they stand for in politics—a denial of progress, a denial of the future and no vision for the country.