Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance, Senator Cormann, in his capacity as shareholder minister for the National Broadband Network. Can the minister advise the Senate what NBN Co.'s strategic review has discovered about the true state of the National Broadband Network?

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

Thank you very much, Mr President, and I thank Senator Smith for the question. Today, for the very first time, the Australian people have the real facts about the true state of Labor's NBN. Those facts are ugly—very ugly. They are much more ugly than—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

Order! Senator Cormann is entitled to be heard in silence.

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

Thank you, Mr President. Those facts are ugly—much more ugly than Labor ever let on to the Australian people before the last election. Minister Turnbull and I asked the new leaders of NBN Co. to come clean with taxpayers about the time and money needed to finish the NBN project under the policies of the discredited former minister for communications.

Senator Conroy interjecting—

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

Order! When there is silence on my left, I will call Senator Cormann.

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

Senator Conroy does not like to hear the facts. The strategic review into NBN reveals that the cost of completing the NBN would soar to $73 billion—a staggering $29 billion more than we were ever told by Senator Conroy. Revenue to 2021 would be a staggering $13 billion less than asserted in NBN Co.'s most current corporate plan. Barely two in every 10 Australians would receive the NBN by 2016 and almost half would still be waiting by 2019. Australian households would pay up to 80 per cent more for broadband. The NBN would not be completed until 2024, which is 3½ years later than the completion date in the current NBN Co. plan. Remember Labor's promises in 2007? National broadband would be finished by 2013. It would be building partnerships with the private sector; it was going to cost taxpayers $4.7 billion. Every fact asserted by Senator Conroy and Labor about the NBN has been proven false.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister explain how the government's NBN will better protect the interests of Australian taxpayers?

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

Under Labor, the NBN was ordered to roll out a technology hand-picked by Senator Conroy—regardless of cost. Senator Wong was a shareholder minister but she clearly did not have the strength to stand up to Senator Conroy in relation to this fiscally irresponsible and reckless approach. It is extraordinary.

Honourable senators interjecting —

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

Order on both sides!

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

This government, in contrast, is setting up a hard limit of $29.5 billion of capital we will contribute, and we have freed up NBN Co.'s management to choose the most cost-effective technologies to deliver the network. That is the only responsible way to complete this project. It is the responsible way to protect taxpayers—something Senator Wong never did. She just let Senator Conroy run amok and waste money.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Can the minister tell the Senate whether Labor's NBN could have remained off budget?

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

Forty billion dollars for 25 megs. You are a laughing-stock.

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

Senator Conroy, you have been repeatedly interjecting. It is disorderly.

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

Senator Conroy is clearly embarrassed by the revelations in the NBN strategic review today. Reducing the price tag of the NBN is not only responsible; it is also the only way to credibly keep this project off the budget expenditure statement. Labor claimed its NBN was commercial and that they were building a valuable asset. The strategic review makes it clear that Labor's NBN was a commercial disaster. It is expected to deliver returns below the rate of inflation. If the project continued on the same Labor trajectory, it could not credibly be kept off budget. The strategic review exposes the Conrovian fantasy. Today the Conrovian NBN fantasy was exposed once and for all. (Time expired)