Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The issue is that a lot in the bill refers to the NBN. Without going over old ground, so much of the bill is structured with the intent of dealing with the NBN. You talk about people’s viewpoints on broadband. The Labor Party lost the plot when they went from $4.7 billion up to $43 billion and back down to $35.7 billion, and we know that a better portrayal of the costs is far in excess of that. Diligence around such a massive figure is just not apparent. The paraphernalia that was delivered to us this morning is just atrocious in the paucity of detail. That is what creates concern in the community. This is not our money; we are going to borrow it, and borrowed money has to be repaid. If you cannot repay it, you are in a world of strife. Nothing we have seen from the Labor Party thus far shows that they can repay it. They always make promises to repay—the consummate art of the IOU—but they are absolutely atrocious at actually delivering the capacity to repay. We have $172.7 billion in gross debt. We have to have an appropriations bill once we get to $200 billion. Last week they borrowed an extra $2.8 billion. We are racing ahead. We have every right in the world—in fact, it is our duty—to make sure that they do not send us down the gurgler.