Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I might just draw the attention of the chamber back to one or two of the questions that I put to Senator Birmingham. I have missed Senator Nash's contributions in these debates. Her contributions on tech matters were generally much more sensible and well researched than those of some of her colleagues, with the honourable exception of Senator Birmingham. I think there is a very important reason why NBN Co. has such a small customer base, and that is primarily that the network does not yet exist. That, I think, is what is suppressing its customer base at the moment. We are about to go into a volume rollout phase, and I do not think you will have to wait 30 years to come back in here—not necessarily to retract—but I do not think anything is coming down the pipeline any time soon that will match the kinds of speeds that will be provided when we can send this sort of bandwidth directly to people's premises. I think there is a very important role for this chamber and its various committees in accountability, in watchdogging this project and making sure that it does not go off the rails. But I also think that the main argument in essence has been won and we now need to just get on with the build.

The question that I put to Senator Birmingham before goes specifically to some of the amendments that he has proposed, particularly amendment (11), about exactly how commercial negotiations are supposed to take place when NBN Co. is effectively being compelled to acquire an asset from a third party.