Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In a few hours' time the government will make a stack of new promises in the budget about what they will do if they are lucky enough to be re-elected at 2 July election. But millions of Australians are still waiting on the government to deliver on the promises they made before the last election.

Before the last election Malcolm Turnbull—he had a different job back then—promised that he was going to deliver a national broadband network that would be faster, cheaper and better, but nothing could be further from the truth. He promised that all Australians would get access to the national broadband network by 2016. Well, it is 2016, Prime Minister, and we are still waiting. He promised that it was going to be cheaper—$29 billion for his version of a second-rate network—but the real truth is that it is going to cost $56 billion, nearly double his figure. He promised it was going to be better, but on his watch, our standing in terms of broadband has dropped from 30th to 60th in the world.

That is why this afternoon—when millions of school kids go home and try to logon to their computer or a few hours later when small businesses try to logon and upload their takings for the day—they will all get their message, 'Still buffering.' They will know who to blame: it will be this Prime Minister. What is clear is that this Prime Minister lost a lot more than his leather jacket on the way to the Lodge; he lost his credibility.