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

The NBN, as I have already said, pays its own way. It generates a return of 7.1 per cent. But the benefits of the NBN are not just in its financial return to the government, but in its return to business and the broader community.

Over the last few months I have visited small businesses in Brunswick who are changing the way the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in Queensland delivers training courses for graziers. I have seen demonstrations of specialist health consultations to remote locations. I have participated in multiparty high-definition videoconferencing. The Gillard government recognises that the NBN is an investment in our future.

What Mr Abbott and Mr Turnbull plan to do is sabotage our children's education and decrease patient care in this country. That is what those opposite are backing; that is what they are supporting—a second-rate network, built dirt— (Time expired)