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

Mr President, as you know, we have not taken Senator Conroy's theological approach to the NBN. We have taken a technology-agnostic approach, which means that we pursue what is known as a multi-technology mix of whatever is the technology that will see NBN rolled out fastest and at lowest cost.

Mr President, I know you will be interested in something recently from The Wall Street Journal. It recorded that Google's high-speed web arm, Google Fiber, which has been rolling out an all-fibre network in 12 cities across the US, is planning to cut its staff in half and turn its attention from fibre to wireless technologies. The journal reported that Google's parent company, Alphabet, is rethinking its high-speed internet business after initial rollouts of fibre proved to be too expensive, and digging up people's front yards—(Time expired)

Senator Conroy interjecting—

Senator O'Neill interjecting—