Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. This is quite clearly part of the attack by the coalition on the government’s stimulus package—a package that was put in place and of which NBN Co. is an integral part and a package that underpins 210,000 jobs in the Australian economy. NBN Co. is part of an initiative that will bring high-speed broadband to this country—high-speed broadband that the coalition could never deliver, high-speed broadband that is important for the productivity of this country and high-speed broadband that is being delivered by Senator Conroy and this government. The key issue here is whether we can deliver real improvements in productivity to this country and do it in a manner in which you were never able to in 11½ years of government. Your economic incompetence left this government a clean-up job of monumental proportions.

You failed on broadband, you failed on productivity, you failed on environmental issues and you failed to make sure this country was equipped to deal with the challenges of international competition and international downturns like we have had in the global financial crisis—a mob of failures across the chamber. You can change your leader, but you were a rabble before Christmas, you have a new leader now and you are still a rabble after Christmas. There is absolutely no way attacking NBN Co. is going to give you any credibility, because your credibility on economic performance is down the tubes.

Australians know that those opposite sat back for 11½ years and failed to deliver. They failed to deliver on the economy, they failed to deliver for young people and they failed to deliver for the future of this country. That is their record. And yet, when we are faced with the global financial crisis, and we take steps to make sure that we are in a position of strength for the future, including establishing broadband throughout this country, what do we get? We get carping about the wages of the executives of NBN Co. I never hear any carping from the other side when it is your big business mates taking $10 million a year out of their shareholders’ back pockets. I don’t hear any of this hypocrisy and argument then; it is all very quiet. Remember, you were also very quiet until your leader, Tony Abbott—