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

The answer to the last question is no. Under the Turnbull government, the NBN is going from strength to strength. The NBN is meeting all of its rollout targets and all of its various other targets. In fact, it is exceeding all of its various key targets over the past two years. I stand by what I said in May when I said the equity cap would remain at $29.5 billion, because that is of course precisely where it remains. It is true that our plan was for NBN to source the remaining funding requirement on external markets by sourcing private sector debt. But when we assessed all of the information, when we assessed all of the analysis, and when we took into account the indicative credit rating that NBN was able to achieve, it became apparent that the best deal for taxpayers, in pursuit of our commitment to deliver the NBN faster and more affordably for taxpayers than would have happened under Labor, was for the government to provide a loan on commercial terms to NBN. And that is, of course, the announcement that we have made. The announcement is there for all to see. It is self-explanatory: $19.5 billion. The government will be receiving interest, of course. The debt will be fully refinanced by 2020-21. Essentially, it is there for all to see—open and transparent. It was the best possible deal for taxpayers and it also makes sure that NBN now has the certainty to focus on finalising the rollout so that the NBN will be delivered in full, much more cheaply than would have been the case under Labor.