Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

This means that for the first time businesses in rural and regional Australia will no longer be at a competitive disadvantage with their counterparts in metropolitan areas. The tyranny of distance will no longer be a barrier to running a successful business in regional and rural Australia. The NBN will allow families to access infrastructure at an equivalency of price and an equivalency of service.

But what do those opposite think we ought to do? They want to demolish the NBN, dig it up and abolish the uniform wholesale pricing that underpins price parity. Under the Liberals' plans, businesses and families across regional and rural Australia will end up paying more and getting less—paying more and getting less under your plans. There has been a lot of talk about leadership recently. It is about time the National Party started showing some on behalf of regional Australians. (Time expired)