Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday the Prime Minister tried to deny he had promised that every Australian would have access to minimum speeds over the NBN by the end of 2016. Does the Prime Minister also deny he promised to deliver the NBN for a cost of $29.5 billion—or is his recollection as unreliable as the HFC network?

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

That's a very tough one—another blow from the opposition. Right; let's say it again: the NBN was a complete train wreck under Labor. Six years, 50,000 activations. What a great effort! Do you know how many the NBN Co does now? It does more than that every two weeks. There are over 6½ million premises that can get the service and over 3¼ million premises that have got the service.

The reality is this: Labor's approach was a catastrophe. Tens of billions of dollars were wasted and can never be recovered. To fulfil Labor's plan would have taken six to eight years longer and $30 billion more. The approach we are taking is getting the job done. The project will be completed, the company assures us, by 2020. We are getting on with the job and getting it done. We inherited a train wreck from Labor and we're fixing it and delivering it. Labor cannot manage anything. They cannot manage the construction of a broadband network any more than the Leader of the Opposition can manage his fantastic vetting process.