Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, there is no conspiracy. Secondly, Senator Singh talks about NBN cost blow-outs. When Labor first announced their NBN policy it was going to cost $4.7 billion. That was in 2007. That went up to $42 billion in 2009, and we were heading for $100 billion under Labor's discredited approach. You were wasting taxpayers' money because you did not know what you were doing. In the time of the previous Labor government Senator Conroy travelled to Darwin five times, essentially to switch on five connections. He did one trip to Darwin for every connection of the new NBN. This was the sort of disrespect that Labor showed for taxpayers' money. We are doing it in a different way. We are making sure that this project is delivered on time, on budget and according to our priorities, and we are delivering it faster and more cheaply and more affordably for consumers than Labor ever would have. (Time expired)