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

That is a question that shows that those opposite, as usual, have failed to do basic research, to even read a press release from either Telstra or NBN Co. or look on the departmental website. It is very clearly spelled out what is being received in the deal between NBN Co. and the Telstra Corporation, which is who the contract, the financial heads of agreement, has been signed with. It is a $9 billion deal between NBN Co. and Telstra, and the $9 billion refers to two or three different aspects but the vast bulk of it refers to access to Telstra’s infrastructure—the ability to use existing infrastructure. This will lead to significant savings for the country and, more importantly, it will not lead to the debacle that took place under those opposite with the HFC cable, when we had Telstra and Optus trucks driving down the same streets stringing two cables up in front of everybody’s houses, digging everybody’s pavement up twice. That is what actually happened. That sort of duplication was a terrible waste of money for the Australian economy.

The other major aspect of the $9 billion is the commitment to transfer all of Telstra’s customer base onto the National Broadband Network. That is millions and millions of Telstra customers closing down the copper and moving across onto the fibre network. This is a win-win. (Time expired)