Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

I am aware of a variety of claims from Senator Birmingham and the member for Wentworth that the NBN Co. are misrepresenting network rollout figures by changing their definitions, all of those sorts of things. These claims are wrong.

Mr Quigley gave a presentation—I think it was last Friday at the American Chamber of Commerce—at which he put up on the screen exactly the same graph which he had tabled at both the last estimates and the one before. For those who are trying to play this game of claiming that the rollout is behind, I simply go back to one very simple point. In February-March last year, the NBN Co. said that they would be able to complete construction in 758,000 homes. Mr Turnbull went on television and said, 'That would be extraordinary. You would have to admire them greatly if they were to achieve that.' By the end of the year, when we produced the December outcome, the NBN Co. had exceeded its construction targets. Did those opposite take the opportunity to live up to their word?