Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I think NBN's results of today remind us of the failures of those opposite. By the time that we inherited the NBN, project contractors had abandoned work in four states. The project was mired in contracting disputes. More than $6 billion had been spent, yet only a grand total of 51,000 premises had been connected to the built network. Those opposite do continue to live in a fantasy land, but I've got to say the numbers do not lie.

The NBN under this government has reached an unprecedented pace. The rate of activations alone has grown fourfold in just the past two years. The approach of those opposite would have pushed up household broadband bills by $43 per month or over $500 a year due to the higher capital expenditure and vastly slower revenue streams that they intended.