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

Thank you, Senator Urquhart, for your question. Under this government, the NBN is now available to more than half the nation. It will be concluded by 2020, and that is a good six to eight years sooner than would have been the case under those opposite, and at $30 billion less cost. But let me explain to colleagues what this government is doing in using the multi-technology mix. Our mandate to NBN is to use the technology that makes sense in a given area, to see the NBN rolled out fastest and at lowest cost. That approach is what is done in the United States. That approach is what is done in Europe. We are doing what the rest of the world does, and that is: using a range of technologies. It is only in vertical city states, such as Singapore, where they pursue a one-technology approach, because that is something that is cost effective. In large nations, such as ours and the United States, and in places such as Europe, a range of technologies are used, and that is exactly what we're doing. It is because we're using a range of technologies that the NBN is going to be completed six to eight years sooner than would have otherwise been the case. That means the whole nation gets the economic benefits of the NBN much sooner than would have otherwise been the case. NBN have commissioned work by the economic consultancy firm AlphaBeta—work by Dr Andrew Charlton, a former economics adviser to Kevin Rudd—which shows that the economic benefits of the NBN are already flowing through to communities throughout Australia, including Tasmania and the electorate of Braddon.