Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

It is a vision that will serve the needs of rural and regional Australia and that will also fill the appalling holes in metropolitan Australia. Without such a vision, this country has no hope of keeping pace with other comparable economies. We have been watching ourselves slide. We have watched $4 billion worth of ad hoc programs to allow Senator Nash and others a ‘smiley’ opportunity in front of the camera, but it has been piecemeal and ad hoc. We have seen $4 billion of taxpayers’ money wasted in this way, making small incremental changes in some areas but not fixing the whole problem, not raising our credentials across the overall economy. How dare this government come in here and say how outrageous it is for us to access taxpayers’ money from the Future Fund to build a proper network, when they have frittered away in such an appalling fashion $4 billion of taxpayers’ money over that time.

I would like to make one more point that shows Senator Coonan’s complete lack of understanding or deliberate attempt to mislead this debate. Labor’s plan is for an open access network. That is a regulatory feature not ever put forward by this government previously because they have chosen to try and negotiate for this type of infrastructure, allowing deals for proprietary networks—cutting a deal for Telstra because they have had an interest in the sale. They have not had the necessary vision to provide for an open access network. That is the key to Labor’s plan—it is an open network, and only Labor has the vision to bring the parties to the table and make this happen.

Senator Coonan has an inability to understand the basic difference regarding the compromised nature of their approach, and now we hear of secret deals, to have some sort of arrangement— (Time expired)