Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

OPEL are perfectly able, if they dispute this, to take legal action, Senator Minchin. It has been nearly a year—in fact, it has been more than a year. We are in a situation where the government is systematically working its way through the National Broadband Network process. Our ambition has always been to make an announcement at the end of March and we are consistently refusing to speculate on the outcome of that. Despite many opportunities, invitations and questions from not just Senator Minchin, but from Senator Birmingham and others, we will not be drawn on the conclusion and our announcement on the NBN. What I can say, though, is that Australians across Australia will be better off under Labor’s NBN plan than they would have been under the former government’s plan. Five capital cities get a superfast fibre network—that is what you were prepared to offer. (Time expired)