Senator JOYCE (Queensland—Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (10.47 am)—We have seen this from the Labor Party before. We saw with the Henry tax review the way that Labor put things off into the never-never, to try to pull the wool over people’s eyes. We saw it with the guide to the Murray-Darling Basin, and now we are seeing it with the NBN. They will not release the details; they will not be honest with the Australian people. It was absolutely remarkable in the extreme that this morning on national television the minister responsible stood and said that in the legislation that is before the Senate the NBN is not mentioned. From what we can ascertain, it was mentioned 64 times.
It is remarkable that we have not got, even in the most basic form, an understanding of the detail of their legislation and that they are basically trying to do a snow job on the Australian people. I can see by the whites of their eyes as it becomes evident to the crossbenchers, and even to the Greens, that there is something amiss—that there is something not quite right in the state of Denmark on this. There are major questions that need to be answered because we are not in a position as a nation to go out on a $43 billion frolic and leave the Australian taxpayers with the bill. We cannot afford to go back to them and say, ‘Sorry, on top of your $170 billion of gross debt we’re going to bang on another $30 billion of debt and we’re just going to ask you to pay it.’
There are too many people who work at checkouts who will have to work long into the night to pay the tax to pay for this mistake. There are too many people who will work in the sun to pay for the tax to pay for this mistake. There are too many people who will stay back in offices late into the night to pay for the tax to pay for this mistake. They have a right to expect us—and we have a duty—to do everything in our power to ventilate what will be the largest infrastructure expenditure program in our nation’s history. If we do not do that then we are being irresponsible.
It is up to the Labor Party to put forward a cogent argument as to why it does not send the NBN to the Productivity Commission. It is up to the Labor Party to put forward a cogent argument as to why it will not table the business plan. It is up to the Labor Party to show that it actually understands what it is talking about when it talks of its own legislation. It seems absolutely apparent that even on the most basic of detail it is lacking. It is up to the Labor Party to explain to us what it means with section 577BA of the current bill that is before the House. It is not so much an application to increase competition; it is an application to remove it from competition. It is an application for an exemption from, I think, section 51 of the Trade Practices Act. These are the sorts of issues that need to be ventilated.
Government senators interjecting—
E5DJoyce, Sen BarnabySenator JOYCE—You know full well that the Australian people are awake to you and that you do not know the details. You are taking us on a frolic. It is not you who are going to have to pay back the money; you are going to force this on the Australian people—that they must repay it. You cannot even coordinate the discussions between your minister in the other place and your minister here. They both have completely different views about how the legislation before the House relates to the NBN. It is good to see Senator Conroy joining us today. He told us this morning that they have no relationship, but that is not what Minister Albanese said. This mass confusion, which is the Labor Party, is unfortunately the reason that they are actually in government. This is the reason that they are here—because they sold the pup that the NBN was a great idea.
Now when the time comes to stand behind their decision, for honesty and transparency, to have it examined by an independent party, they are doing everything in their power to try to remove that opportunity. They will not stand the test of transparency. They want to live in the shadows of this mischievous half-light where they say to us, as they always do, ‘In many moons time, we will tell you the truth.’ Well, the time to tell the truth is now.