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

I thank Senator Back for his question and for his great interest in communications, particularly in regional areas. As my colleagues on this side know, the NBN is being rolled out sooner and at less cost to the taxpayer than would have been the case if those opposite were still in office. Also, as I think colleagues on this side are well aware, we are adopting a technology-agnostic approach to the NBN, rather than a theological approach as was the case with Senator Conroy.

There is good news: the half-yearly results released earlier this month reveal that the rollout of the NBN is accelerating, with 1.7 million homes and businesses now able to order a connection. Isn't that good news? The rollout under those opposite was painfully slow: a miserly 51,000 users were connected to the fixed network by the time of the 2013 election. Results today show that the total number of connected premises was 780,000 as at the end of January. Financially, the company met or exceeded its targets, with revenue from the six months to 31 December 2015 more than double when compared with revenue from the corresponding previous period. This is in contrast to Labor's rollout, where the NBN failed to meet each and every rollout target that had been set. I was very pleased to see in the financial results that initial customer research showed that the levels of satisfaction with broadband services delivered using fibre to the node are exactly the same as those using fibre to the premises. I should take this opportunity to congratulate the management team of the NBN, who are getting the NBN out to Australians sooner and at less cost.