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

It is great to have the minister in the chamber today during what must be a very touchy time for the Australian Labor Party. I am sure the minister has complete confidence in his capacity to get the NBN out—'complete confidence' are words being used quite a bit around here lately. I am sure he has complete confidence in the government's capacity to reach a surplus, complete confidence in the carbon tax, complete confidence in the NBN and complete confidence in the member for Dobell.

At the outset, it is important to acknowledge what we are looking at here: the Telecommunications Legislation Amend­ment (Fibre Deployment) Bill 2011 in the guise of the Labor Party's NBN. The difference between the Labor Party and the coalition is not that we do not believe in broadband; it is that we do not believe in $56 billion of debt. We believe in fibre to the node. They believe in fibre to just about any place they can point a stick at. They believe that the only way to pay for it is to remove themselves from market principles, create a monopoly and, in the meantime, borrow the money. And if they cannot pay it back, they just put it on the credit card bill along with all the other debt—another issue that is in the news at the moment.

The coalition will be proposing a couple of amendments to this—

Senator Conroy interjecting—

He is awake. I have complete confidence in the minister—complete confidence, like the complete confidence they have in the member for Dobell! I have complete confidence in the Labor Party! I might go to a few of the allegations being made by the minister. The minister talks about his belief in unit pricing. The National Party believe in unit pricing and that is why the National Party moved an amendment to have unit pricing on the download speed—true unit pricing. But what we got from the minister was another swindle where they only told half the story. 'Half the story' is another term you hear to describe what the Labor Party say. They tell half the story. They do not tell the full story about what actually happens.

On this the Labor Party have three silos: the fibre silo in the urban areas, the wireless silo in the rural areas and the satellite silo. And they all have different costings. The people who will pay the most are the people in regional areas—that silo. So the govern­ment do not really believe in unit pricing and that is why they voted against the amendment to bring about unit pricing. As we know, the Independents, Mr Windsor and Mr Oakeshott, supported the government in making sure that regional areas did not get true unit pricing. So we can dispel that one.

Now we have a piece of legislation that is going to bring about a new monopoly. In the past, under the coalition one of the great reductions in the cost of living came about through telecommunications where there was a 20 per cent reduction, I think, in the actual costs. But, now, the crowd opposite—the complete confidence crowd—have legisla­tion that will allow the NBN to charge five per cent above the CPI. The reason they are doing that is that the numbers do not actually stack up. It did not take too long to find that the numbers do not stack up. Who are they charging this to? In this new monopoly, everybody will have to be part of it and connected, and they will be ripped off.

I notice shadow minister Malcolm Turnbull has said that the NBN only has 50 customers. Even I found this number to be so incredibly ridiculously small that I had to ask my staff to check it. Surely, it cannot be that bad. There cannot be just 50 customers. Surely, this $56 billion enterprise cannot have just 50 customers. But I think it is true: they only have 50 real customers. Remember the launch in Armidale where they all put their hands on the button with Julia Gillard? I have complete confidence in Julia Gillard! I have complete confidence in the Prime Minister! She has complete confidence in the member for Dobell! We have the minister—