Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

As my colleague quite rightly said, sometimes extreme pressure makes for bad decision making—to paraphrase what he said. That is absolutely what we are seeing at the moment. I say to the government: you have an opportunity now to deliver on the frankness and openness that you have been beating your chests about since the election. You have the opportunity now to put your cards on the table and prove us wrong in relation to the NBN. Prove us wrong and show us that you have got the information that substantiates this expenditure. Prove us wrong and show us that this is a far better investment for the future than schools, hospitals and roads. Prove to us that you are not putting a noose around the necks of our kids and grandkids. The only way you can do that is to put on the table the information that you have—and not hide behind a failure to have a cabinet meeting or behind some extraordinary notion that no-one has had the time to read the documentation. Put it on the table and let us see it. If we are wrong, show us where we are wrong; if we are not, stop wasting an obscene amount of taxpayers’ money which could be far better spent elsewhere.