Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

He is swimming naked, Senator Cormann! When the minister was asked who was going to maintain the copper lines he was forced, begrudgingly, to acknowledge that the government will have to pay $100 million, per year, for the next eight years to Telstra, on a subcontract basis, to manage the copper network that they are paying Telstra to pull out. This would be an absolute joke if it were not so serious, because the taxpayers’ money is involved. We have a $43 billion spend, with $11 billion in cash going to Telstra, and ongoing costs, as I just said, of $100 million a year—with no cost-benefit analysis, no business case and no transparency. This is a cobbled-together plan that cannot be sustained under any close examination. It was cobbled together, because we know—and I reminded the Senate of this yesterday—that the mark 1 broadband plan of the government did not engender any support out there in the market. It did not receive appropriate tenders. Importantly, Senator Conroy came in here with a one-page document from Telstra and said, ‘That is a tender,’ and then a few weeks later said that it was not a tender. So he hopped on Kevin 747’s plane—because that was the only time he was able to see His Majesty Kevin Rudd at the time—he sat with him, they got out an envelope and they both scribbled on the back of it. One wrote ‘broadband’ and the other one wrote ‘$43 billion’. This is what we have been shown up with today. It is an embarrassment; it is a humiliation. Senator Conroy is nodding. It has been caught on the camera, because he has been humiliated and embarrassed by this. It is quite extraordinary.

The coalition will be moving a number of amendments. Whether the bill will be supported will be subject to whether these amendments can get up. Without them, we have the monstrosity of a government monopoly that is taking taxpayers’ funds, scattering them around like confetti, which this government has a huge history of, and we have a list of failed ministers and programs on that side to prove it. But all of us on this side have an obligation and it is incumbent on us, whether or not the taxpayers like our politics, to ensure that the government is spending their money appropriately.