Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

The NBN Co annual report 2024 raises a number of concerns. You need to go to page 150 to get to the financials in the annual report, but what you find when you do is that free cash flow continues to deteriorate. There's a negative free cash flow of $1.386 billion in financial year 2024—a deterioration of some $250 million since financial year 2023, or some 22 per cent. The NBN Co explains that through expenditure on high capital expenses and fibre upgrades, but what we've also seen is a flatlining number of users in NBN services and satellite, or so-called Sky Muster, where we've seen a decline in numbers of about 20,000 users over the past two years. In so-called brownfield sites, we've seen a decline of about 100,000 over the past two years. And so-called fixed wireless is largely flat. What we have seen is a deterioration of the free cash flow position, declining customer numbers for satellite and brownfield, and fixed wireless not growing.

The NBN's financial state is of serious concern, and I urge senators to look closely at this report. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.