Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Out there in the regions there is going to be real broadband access. I will take the interjection from the other side that it has taken a while. It has taken a while because after the Nationals secured this money we wanted to get it right. If you try to come up with a quick, cobbled-together planned like Labor do, you come up with a plan that does not work—one that has holes in it. Once you scratch the surface and go a little deeper, you realise that there is no substance for rural and regional communities in Labor’s plan. There is no substance because they are going to rip out taxpayers’ money and put it into the cities. Show me the substance there. There is no substance in this plan as there is no substance in a whole stack of Labor policies. This is indicative of how they approach things. They do not substantiate the glib, throwaway lines they put out into the community. They do not back up what they say they are going to do. It is about time, not only with broadband but with a whole range of Labor policies, that people scratched a little deeper to see exactly what the substance is and what the plan is, because when you have a look there is no substance, no experience and no way forward with their policies.

People do not care about technology. They get sick of hearing what is going to be delivered and how it is going to be delivered. They just want faster broadband. So I am delighted to see, with the announcement of the government’s policy, that we are going to give them that. Not one per cent of the country, not 10 per cent of the country, not the 70 per cent of the country which fibre to the node would be lucky to reach, but 100 per cent of people around this nation are going to get faster broadband, and they deserve it.