Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

This package of amendments—and I will not burden the chamber with the detail of each of them—relate very much to the fundamental issue of Commonwealth ownership of the NBN Co. I see Senator Ludlum already with a wry smile on his face and a little shake of the head in my direction. I know that these amendments pain Senator Ludlum and I know in fact that these provisions in the bill even pain Senator Ludlum to a degree, because it would no doubt be his preference if instead there were a simple, clear statement of prohibition on the sale of NBN Co. That is fine. I respect anybody who comes into this place who has a view and puts that view with passion based on their principles and philosophical belief, no matter how greatly I may differ from them in regard to that.

We have here a deal done by the government with Senator Ludlum and the Greens, and good on them for getting the concessions that they wanted in this legislation. But unfortunately for Australians and for the operation of the telco industry in Australia and for Australian taxpayers in particular, these amendments that Senator Ludlum has so carefully helped to craft pretty much seem to make it almost impossible for the Commonwealth to ever sell the NBN. I know that that is something that Senator Ludlum will welcome and be grateful for, if that is the case, but the opposition does not welcome it. We do not think that through this bill we should be seeking to tie the hands of future governments. We do not think that it is reasonable to present a situation where, essentially, the NBN cannot be sold. In particular we have, as my colleagues highlighted in the debate on the previous amendment, this question around whether or not the NBN can be sold until it is complete. The question that remains over whether and what it is to say that the NBN is complete. We have a series of definitions that are attempted to be given here, but many people are not unreasonably sceptical of whether this project will ever reach a point at which it can be declared to be complete. It is a project that will take many, many years and there will be several different elections in that time—we hope, on our side of the fence, just one change of government in that time—and we will see many changes to government policy and many different approaches in years to come, yet we have this very prescriptive process put in place here. We do not think it is appropriate to tie the hands of future governments in this way. We think there is a chance that the future capital investment that NBN Co. will need may ultimately not be forthcoming and that the direction of this project, as is so often the case with this government, or with future governments, could change. So we seek to delete these provisions that tie the Commonwealth’s hands. We seek to eliminate the opportunity for the government hand-in-hand with the Greens and at the instigation of the Greens to try to make this very much a permanent government monopoly. We do not think that is the right thing for Australia, especially not for Australia’s taxpayers.

I do note, and we will come to aspects of this debate, that part of the requirements for the sale as well as a declaration that it be complete is to have a Productivity Commission inquiry into the potential sale of the NBN. In principle, that is not something that the opposition would object to. Of course, one of our qualms about this is that we have been calling for a Productivity Commission inquiry into the building of the NBN and calling for it consistently for a long, long period of time.