Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Finance and Debt Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Senator Conroy) and the Assistant Treasurer (Senator Sherry) to questions without notice asked by Senators Cormann and Joyce today relating to the National Broadband Network.

It is interesting that we found today that the government’s depth of understanding of their own deal does not even go to the person representing the Treasurer here. Their understanding of the financial implications of what they have been lauding is completely without any sort of diligence whatsoever. A person sitting merely feet away from the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has no idea of what the implications of a lease are, as opposed to what ownership of an asset is.