David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. Will the minister update the House on the progress of the NBN rollout? Why is it important to get large infrastructure projects like the NBN on a stable financial footing?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question and I note his very keen interest in this subject of broadband, which stands in marked contrast to that of the opposition. The shadow minister for communications, the member for Blaxland, has only asked me one question. It was not about broadband; it was about my boat—and he's lost all interest in my boat too! Mind you, they seem to have lost all interest in questioning the immigration minister about boats as well, so it's probably nothing personal; I shouldn't be offended!

The NBN has now over 200,000 paying customers, and we have trebled the number of paying, connected customers on the fibre network since the election. Our focus has been on actually connecting people, getting fibre to the premises and getting people to pay for it as opposed to the Labor Party's policy, which was simply fibre to the press release! Thousands and thousands of premises they claimed to have been passed by fibre; 80 per cent of them at the time of the election could not get a service even if they wanted one. They could be there, their pockets stuffed with money, wanting to give it to the NBN, but there was nowhere they could get it, because the fibre only went as far as the press release.

The focus on getting a stable financial basis depends on good homework. The Labor Party never did its homework. They were like somebody who hears about a restaurant, thinks it sounds great, goes in, does not look at the menu.

Mr Burke interjecting—

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

Resume your seat.

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

They hear about a restaurant. They think it sounds good. They do not look at the menu. They run in. They realise that the meal is going to take hours and hours to get there and it is going to cost a fortune.

There is a better way. The Labor Party sometimes has done their homework on restaurants, and I have a good example here in the menu from the Hoang Hau restaurant, where the Leader of the Opposition was four years ago on Monday. All the prices were there: stuffed crispy chicken wing—that would have been the left wing member for Grayndler, I think, that got stuffed on that night—$7.20. Peking shredded Rudd—no, sorry, beef—$16.80. But when they went through the menu of the Hoang Hau on that famous night when the Leader of the Opposition was indeed doing his homework, what was the endgame? What was the outcome? You find the clue in the last—

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. This question, as I recall, was about the rollout of the NBN.

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

That was not an invitation to repeat the question. What is the point of order?

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nothing the minister is now speaking of is relevant.

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

The minister has the call and will return to the question.

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

The object of that evening—of all that homework, of course—in the long run was the last item in the menu, among the vegetarian specialties: happy green Ireland. That's what it was all about: happy green Ireland—$14.80!

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

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.