Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy. The opposition has been joined by a chorus of notable groups and individuals in calling for a cost-benefit analysis of the NBN, including Treasury and the OECD. Most recently, economist and Reserve Bank board member Warwick McKibbin has echoed these calls, only to be dismissed by the government. Will the minister explain why the government will not perform a cost-benefit analysis on the single biggest infrastructure investment in this country’s history?

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am more than happy to repeat my answer that I have given many times before on this. Let us be very clear on this. The cost-benefit analysis assertion is based on the fact that you are asserting that it is not financially viable.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, it is not.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You’d know a lot about it, George! You’d know a lot about a cost-benefit analysis.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Conroy, just address the chair.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I apologise. I should not allow myself to be distracted by the rabble over there. You are right, I apologise. The demand for a cost-benefit analysis is based on the assertion that it is going to not be financially viable. McKinsey’s, as I have repeated, are saying it is financially viable. The business case, which we will release shortly, says it is financially viable. There is not a cost-benefit analysis anywhere in the world that has come back and said that the benefits are not a positive. So, in actual fact, on the one hand we have a financially positive business case, and then we could spend a couple of million dollars of taxpayers’ money to prove that there are benefits across the entire economy. Those opposite who pretend that they are about fiscal responsibility would simply seek to waste taxpayers’ money. The Productivity Commission, like the OECD and a range of other people that Senator Bernardi has referred to in his question, all make an argument that we should keep the copper open; that we should keep the copper that has served this country well for 50 to 70 years in some cases—let’s keep it in the ground. Let’s ignore the fact that we are now moving to the end of the copper era and moving to the fibre future. The copper in the ground at the moment in actual fact is degrading. It costs—(Time expired)

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister has just demonstrated he has no idea about what a cost-benefit analysis is. Mr President, I ask the minister a supplementary question. Has the government conducted any analysis to determine what kind of permanent savings can be achieved through projected efficiency benefits if the NBN project is delivered as it is currently planned by the government?

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My department recently released two sectoral studies.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What studies?

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sectoral. It is what you do in economics. I know there are not many of you who know anything about it over there. It is called a sectoral study.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Conroy, ignore the interjections. Those on my left interjecting should cease.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those studies demonstrated the benefits. IBM and Access Economics released the study for fibre-to-the-node projects. Despite those opposite trying to claim this was really just a reheating of a previous Access Economics and Telstra study—a quite disgraceful assertion—IBM and Access Economics produced a study which again showed the benefits across the economy of a slower system than we are producing. So there are many studies out there, right across the world. But if we are going to take seriously a claim that we should keep the copper open because some new—(Time expired)

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Minister, given your refusal to have a cost-benefit analysis conducted and your inability to detail the permanent savings that supposedly will be achieved by your $43 billion broadband experiment, isn’t this just another example that your ad hoc policy has been created by a listless government and demonstrates once again that you are completely out of your depth?

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A listless government that has now passed the bill through the House of Representatives, ensured that taxpayers’ moneys are not wasted with a spurious cost-benefit analysis, and defeated those opposite just recently who tried to gag the debate on the bill, and not for the first time, for about the fourth time—if that is the bar you set for ‘listless’, I will happily live by it. Again, this is a debate about a government that is committed to modernising this economy and ensuring that Australians get access to a world-class broadband network. Those opposite seek to deliver, well, to be fair, the 2007 Labor policy, but we have moved on from that and we are now actually building the National Broadband Network. It is on the ground being delivered in Tasmania. It will be delivered later this year—(Time expired)