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

Senator Minchin is actually misquoting Optus. I think they were indicating that for a 70 per cent rollout it was $33 billion, depending on the level of the rollout. I think, if you read it carefully, that is what they were actually saying; I am happy to be contradicted. But let me be clear: we have said we are having an implementation study to go through all of these issues. We have said that from day one, and we do not resile from that. We are in negotiations which will allow us to be definitive on that. Depending on whether one company or another company is involved, we will change this equation. Senator Minchin, instead of just sitting back and calling for more studies, why don’t you get behind giving Australians faster broadband? Why don’t you just do that—or, as Mr Kim Williams from Foxtel said today— (Time expired)