Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

A very good point, Senator Birmingham. We hear stories about unions arranging for work to be done at a highly inflated price and then handing out free credit cards to individual union officials to book up whatever they like on the cost of the contractor. Perhaps there is some veracity in those claims. But that is not the matter I want to talk about today.

I simply ask the question: is it true that the options for a greenfields developer are to get NBN Co. to put in the infrastructure at no cost or to get a private contractor to do it but at a charge? Are those the options, Minister?