Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I could answer Senator Bilyk with one word by saying 'no'. But I will not do that, because there has been a bit of action between Senator Bilyk asking her question and my opportunity to answer, so I will give a fuller answer. I think Senator Bilyk is referring to a leaked document from the nbn, which appeared in The Australian newspaper today. Let me share with you a media statement from nbn co, headed 'nbn refutes cost claims', which says:

nbn has refuted the accuracy of claims made in today’s media, saying that any costs related to build of the nbn network have already been included in the Corporate Plan released in August.

So the headline in the paper today saying 'new cost blow-out' is wrong. Nbn updated its figures in the August corporate plan. The release goes on to say:

With 550,000 Fibre-to-the-Node premises now in construction and a further 40,000 able to connect, nbn is confident that the cost per premises for Fibre-to-the-Node, as outlined in the Corporate Plan, is accurate.

As released in August this year and discussed at length, nbn has a comprehensive plan built from a true history of actuals and experience in building the network at scale.

It then goes on to say:

Risks and mitigation plans for the network are outlined in the Corporate Plan, and the revised peak funding figure takes these scenarios into account. We have produced a peak funding range and provided a contingency, as prudent measures to manage a project of this size and complexity.

Senator Bilyk, I appreciate the opportunity to provide comfort and reassurance to you. You do not need to be worried about the mischaracterisation of that document in the paper today. It was an early draft, it was an internal planning document and, because what is contained in there is commercial-in-confidence and the final numbers may have varied, I will not speak further to that.