Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. I refer the minister to the recent state of the internet report that shows that Australian broadband is slow and expensive. What is the government doing to turn around the results of the former government's management of the NBN?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question and note that, in his state of Tasmania, the Labor Party's utterly catastrophic mismanagement of the NBN had reached such a point that, months before the election, construction had completely ceased. Nothing was happening at all. Indeed, $7 billion was spent as at the time of the election and the project was less than three per cent complete.

The reason so many Australians have such inadequate broadband is that nothing was done by Labor other than to spend $7 billion and connect a handful of people in six years—six wasted years, which should have seen real action, real progress and people being upgraded to competitive speeds. Nothing happened while Labor talked about broadband. This was the most wasteful project of the Labor Party in government.

This is what we are doing: we are getting this project back on track. Already, more than twice as many Australians are actively connected to the fibre network today as were at the election. The rollout is accelerating. We have the project back on track in Tasmania.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth will desist.

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

As far as affordability is concerned—and this is a vital issue because broadband in Australia is expensive relative to other countries; the honourable member's point is absolutely right—if Labor had been allowed to continue the project on their plans, Australians would have had to pay up to 80 per cent more of the already high prices in order to pay for what would have been a $73 billion project—$30 billion more than they told Australians it would cost.

Ms Rowland interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Greenway will desist.

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

We will complete this project sooner and at considerably less cost. It will cost $32 billion less and it will be done sooner. The mix of technologies we will use are consistent with the approach being taken by major telcos—Deutsche Telekom, British Telecom, AT&T, Swisscom, Belgacom. The NBN today is being run for the first time by competent telecom professionals—

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth will desist.

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

a board of experienced people, and a chief executive who has actually built and run telecom networks.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth is warned.

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

And it is being managed for the first time in a businesslike fashion. We cannot recover all of the years lost by Labor or many of the billions lost by Labor, but we are cleaning up the NBN mess as we are cleaning up the rest of Labor's mess.