Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister promised that every Australian would have access to the NBN by the end of 2016. It's now the end of 2017. Most Australians due to receive the HFC, including over 40,000 premises in Bennelong, do not know when they will get access to the NBN. Prime Minister, when will the people in Ryde and East Ryde, West Ryde, North Ryde, Meadowbank, Putney and Ermington get access to the NBN like you promised them?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has the call.

Honourable members interjecting—

The Minister representing the Minister for Communications.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the Leader of the Opposition for that question. It does take an extraordinary lack of historical knowledge to be suggesting that this government has anything to apologise for when it comes to the rollout of the NBN. When you look at the numbers, the numbers are quite instructive. The numbers are quite instructive. Let's look at the NBN's corporate plan, published in December 2010. In December 2010, when the Prime Minister was either Mr Rudd or Ms Gillard—one or the other—the number of premises that were supposed to be covered by 30 June 2011 was 223,000. What they actually delivered was 10,575. On 30 June 2012, what did these rollout geniuses from Labor deliver when they had promised 496,000? They delivered 95,799. What did they deliver on 30 June 2013, when they had promised 1.7 million? They promised 1.7 million. This wasn't off the cuff, by the way; this was in their business plan. They promised 1.7 million by 30 June 2013, and they delivered 280,000. Now, that is not a high distinction.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will resume his seat for a second. The Leader of the Opposition, on a point of order?

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On direct relevance. The question was: when will the people in Ryde, Ermington and Putney get their HFC NBN? When?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I tell you what, mate, if you were in government, they wouldn't have it now and they wouldn't be getting it for a very long time—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will refer to members by their correct titles.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

because your track record was dismal. Your track record was hopeless. What you delivered on the NBN was a pathetic joke. You claim to suggest that, if there were a change, somehow you'd do a better job. But the historical record does not lie. By June 2013, when you had promised to deliver 1.7 million, what you'd actually delivered was less than 20 per cent of that. That's not a high distinction. That's not a distinction. That's not a credit. That's not even a pass. That's a fail. That is a fail. And that is Labor's record of NBN failure.

They had six years of dismal NBN failure, and now they expect that the people of Bennelong will be so naive and so credulous as to believe that they've got a plan that's going to do better than the performance we are seeing under the Turnbull government, where 6½ million premises are now able to connect. What is their plan? We've got no idea what their plan is. Their plan at the last election was that they were going to deliver two million more premises with fibre and not spend an extra dollar. They were going to reinvent the rules of economics. It's a miracle! Magic pudding economics comes to the NBN. You have zero credibility on the NBN. Your track record— (Time expired)