Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. Will the minister outline to the House the government's plans for financing the National Broadband Network? How does this differ from the previous approach and why is it important to minimise debt and to build sustainable public finances?

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

I thank the honourable member for her question. We know that had the Labor Party continued in office with their NBN plan, it would have cost $73 billion—an enormous cost to the taxpayer—and it had the consequence of raising internet prices by up to 80 per cent. Every aspect of the Labor Party's financial management involved a denial of reality and a refusal to acknowledge the need to maintain sustainable finances. The honourable member asked what we are doing. We are completing the project three and a half years sooner and $32 billion cheaper—and therefore more affordably.

The previous approach by the Labor Party is very, very well illustrated by a recent press release put out by the member for Blaxland and the member for Greenway. It is a very modest release. The titles of the two members take up more than half the page. They are in about 20-point type—no doubt out of deference to those with poor eyesight. But what is remarkable here is the denial of any type of financial responsibility. They say here that under Labor's approach only $30 billion would be paid for by the government—only $30 billion. So where would the $43 billion come from? Where would it come from—junk bonds? Who knows? They suggest that it could be borrowed by the NBN Co with no government guarantee—that you could borrow $43 billion on $2.6 billion of free cash flow. It would not even be enough to pay the interest.

As I read this I became angrier and angrier at the incredible profligacy of the Labor Party. But then I was filled with a warm glow. This press release made me feel young again. It reminded me of shoulder pads, Duran Duran and Bruce Springsteen. It went back to the eighties! This, Madam Speaker, is the financial gospel of Alan Bond and Laurie Connell. Oh, Madam Speaker, remember those halcyon days of the America's Cup, margaritas at Fremantle—it was all coming back—and when you could borrow tens and tens of billions of dollars and never have to pay it back; when it was all fantasy money. Oh, Madam Speaker, this is a retro party indeed. They are going back into the past. Sadly, I compared them to Laurel and Hardy a day or so ago. That was unfair, because at least Stan Laurel fessed up with his famous line, 'What another fine mess I got you into.'