Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are the second-highest taxing country in the OECD.

Only in the few minutes allowed to me do I want to comment on Senator Conroy's interjections with regard to the NBN. I remember when I came into this place in 2009 that Senator Conroy acted. People say it was written on a coaster; others say it was on a napkin. It was between himself and then Prime Minister Rudd, between Adelaide and Canberra. If it had been a Perth to Canberra flight, they might have come up with something a bit different. I remember asking Senator Conroy in my first days and weeks here: 'Where's the business plan, Stephen?' Do you know what we were told? 'You don't need a business plan for a multibillion-dollar NBN.' So I said, 'Where's the risk analysis? Where's the analysis that shows you the benefits and the costs?' All we ever got was, 'No, no, we're too good for that. We don't need to do that.' Eventually he was forced, kicking and screaming, to come up with some sort of model. I will never forget: the first opportunity to tell us how proud of it he was was at Midway Point in Tasmania. Senator Bilyk, sitting behind Senator Conroy, knows all about Midway Point. In the north of the state, all this technology was introduced in schools. It failed, like Labor will fail should they get back into government.