JASON CLARE MP SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS MEMBER FOR BLAXLAND

E&OE TRANSCRIPT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW MONDAY, 2 DECEMBER 2013 CANBERRA SUBJECTS: Tony Abbotts Broken Promise on Schools; NBN; Removing the debt-cap; Clive Palmers Maiden Speech JASON CLARE: I want to say a few words about the NBN but before I do, let me say something about the Liberal lies on education. You might have seen the Sunday Telegraph yesterday where it identified the areas that will be hardest hit by the cuts that Government is going to make to education. No area will be hit more than my electorate of Blaxland. The number one school that will be hit by these cuts is Chester Hill High School, number six is Bass High in my electorate. So here is the challenge Christopher Pyne, come to my electorate, come to Chester Hill High School and look those children in the eye and explain today why you are cutting money from their school and why you lied. Let there be no doubt about this, Christopher Pyne has lied. He said one thing before the election and hes saying another thing now. Put Christopher Pyne on a polygraph and it would blow up. This bloke has lied and he should apologise to the children in my electorate. Now onto the NBN. Today is D-Day for Malcolm Turnbulls plan to roll out a second rate NBN. Hes been given a strategic review of the NBN by his mates that have written a report for him at the NBN Company. Its on his desk today and he should release that report. Most particularly he should release all of the report, theres some suggestion that he wont release it all, he should release the whole report and he

should come clean with the Australian people and explain whether hes going to honour his own election promises. Last week, the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that it had a secret report from NBN Co to the minister that was given to him as part of his incoming ministers brief when he became the minister a couple of months ago. What that report indicated was that it was unlikely that the government would be able to meet its election promise to give everyone access to the NBN by 2016. So here we go again. The government of broken promises looks like theyre going to break another promise. They broke their promise on debt, said that they wanted to cut debt but now it looks like they want to increase debt. They broke their promise on boats, they said theyd turn back boats but now theyre not doing that. Theyre breaking their promise on education, and now it looks like theyre going to break their promise on the NBN. As people have said before, this is not the government they promised to be. Happy to take questions. JOURNALIST: Should Christopher Pyne be sacked? CLARE: Christopher Pyne should do what he promised before the election. He should honour the promises he made and backflip on the decision he made last week, and honour the promise to give that Gonski funding to the schools in my electorate and schools right across the country. JOURNALIST: Hes not going to do that though, so what should happen to him? CLARE: Well, I think it was Peter Hartcher on the weekend who said of all the incompetent ministers in this government, Christopher Pyne would have to be the most incompetent. People who didnt know who Christopher Pyne was before the election, know who he is now, and they hate him. There are people on the streets in my electorate saying who is this bloke? Can you please tell him to honour the promises he made before the election and give our kids the funding they deserve. JOURNALIST: So would you like to see him go though? CLARE: I want him to do what he promised to do. I want him to stop the lies and to give the funding to the kids in my electorate. JOURNALIST: Just on the NBN, the argument seems to be that some of this information will be marked sensitive, do you accept that? CLARE: Well thats for Malcolm Turnbull to explain. He needs to release the report. And he needs to explain why hes going to roll out a second rate, second class NBN. And for this report to meet the test that the minister has set for it, he needs to explain exactly how much its going to cost to roll out a second rate NBN. To do that he needs to explain how much its going to cost to fix the old copper network. Not estimates, not assumptions, he needs information from Telstra which is independently assessed to confirm how much its going to cost to fix the copper

network and then how much its going to cost to maintain the copper network. This could potentially cost billions and billions of dollars over the next decade, and you cant switch from a first class fibre to the premises model to an old fibre to the node type model until you know exactly how much it will cost. JOURNALIST: The Greens seem to be in serious negotiations with the Coalition about removing the debt ceiling. Is that something that Labor should consider? CLARE: No. Simple as that. This is hypocrisy on a grand scale. First they said they would cut the debt. Then they wanted to almost double the debt. Now apparently the skys the limit. We have made it very clear; we will increase the debt cap to $400 billion right now this week, but if you want to raise the debt level any higher youve got to prove it, youve got to release MYEFO and explain why. JOURNALIST: [Inaudible] CLARE: Laura, this is the biggest and most important infrastructure project in Australia, and its important that its done right. I believe and the Labor Party believes that that means it must be done with fibre, fibre to the premises, fibre to peoples homes and businesses. To answer your question, thereve been problems with construction and they need to be fixed. But dont throw the baby out with the bath water. Fix the construction problems. Dont throw it out. Dont leave Australians with a second class, second rate National Broadband Network that wed just have to come back and finish off down the track. JOURNALIST: So you acknowledge that Labor left problems for the Coalition to deal with? CLARE: I have said before and I said it at a conference two weeks ago that there were problems with the early construction roll out. I worked in the construction industry for five years before I went into Parliament and I know how difficult construction projects can be. The more you do it, the better you get at it. You build one bridge, you might make mistakes. You build forty-four on a project like WestLink M7 that I worked on; you get better and better at it, and thats whats been happening with the NBN. Dont make the mistake of throwing out the infrastructure we need for the twentyfirst century. Keep rolling out the NBN, dont leave us with a second class, second rate system that this government is talking about. Let me remind you, back in the 40s, Robert Menzies was one of the fiercest critics of the Snowy Hydro Scheme. He was virulent in his attacks on that project, he even refused to turn up to the launch of it two months before an election. Then he became Prime Minister and suddenly had a change of heart. He supported it, he backed it, he funded it. And what Im saying is Tony Abbott, you need to be like Robert Menzies here. Back this infrastructure. You say that you are the infrastructure Prime Minister, well if youre the infrastructure Prime Minster, you need to fund and support the infrastructure that we need for the twenty-first century and theres no better example of that than the NBN.

JOURNALIST: Just to be really clear, so you want the strategic review to be publically released in full? CLARE: Yes, I do, I do. If there are reasons why it cant be released in full, then the minister needs to explain why. JOURNALIST: Just in regards to Clive Palmer, hes got his maiden speech today, any tips for him? CLARE: I wish him well. Its great privilege to be elected to the Australian Parliament. Theres only a little over a thousand people that have been elected Members of the House of Representatives. And you get an opportunity to explain your vision, what you hope to do as a Member of Parliament for your electorate, and Im sure that Mr Palmer will do that today and I wish him well. JOURNALIST: So do you think hes going to abuse parliamentary privilege, or end up having a fairly colourful speech this afternoon? CLARE: Well Ive got no idea what hes about to say. Stay tuned. Thanks very much.

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