Canberra
PM: I'm here with the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, and we are here predominately to talk about the National Broadband Network, and of course the Telstra structural separation Bill in the Senate, but I do, before making those statements, want to make a brief statement relating to North Korea and tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Of course I am, and the Government is, deeply concerned by yesterday's artillery attack on the Republic of Korea, which is a great friend of Australia. I condemn this attack and I send my condolences to the people of Korea, the Republic of Korea, following this attack.
Yesterday's events, of course, follow the incident in March where a North Korean submarine attacked a vessel of the South Korean Navy. This incident also follows recent reports that North Korea is developing a sophisticated uranium enrichment program in complete defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
Now, these series of events are deeply troubling. They threaten stability on the Korean Peninsula and in North Asia, and in the face of these provocations the Republic of Korea has acted with a great deal of restraint, but in such a tense and heavily armed environment, the risk of miscalculation and escalation is ever-present.
The Government calls on North Korea to abide by international norms of behaviour and to cease its hostile acts. We call on North Korea to abide by the 1953 Armistice agreement, and we call on North Korea to make a genuine contribution to abandon its nuclear programs.
It goes without saying the Government is monitoring events in North Korea closely. During the course of the morning members of the National Security Committee have been brought together for a briefing from our Defence community and security agencies on the situation. We are in close consultation with our South Korean, Japanese and US partners, and we will be also be urging China to bring what influence it can to bear on North Korea. It's important, we believe, for all nations, including our own, to stand up in complete condemnation of North Korea's aggression and to urge it to stop all hostile acts.
Let me turn now to the question of the National Broadband Network and the Telstra structural separation Bill.
I can confirm that the Government today is releasing an important document to facilitate the passing of the Telecommunications Structural Separation Bill in the Senate. I want to reiterate, as I have in the Parliament over the last few days, that this Bill will deliver historic reforms, a historic economic reform and allow the roll-out of high-speed broadband to go ahead. Securing the passage of this Bill would secure that result despite Tony Abbott's consistent determination to wreck the National Broadband Network.
This reform will enable us to deliver high-speed broadband to homes, businesses, schools and hospitals while making sure it's available at a price that families can afford. This will mean lower prices, more choice and more innovation in service delivery to Australian households.
Shortly, we will be releasing a 50-page document that summarises the NBN Co business case. I have determined to do this in consultation and joint work with the Minister after a series of detailed discussions with the independent senators, and of course we are continuing to engage closely with the crossbench members of the House of Representatives who supported the National Broadband Network and supported this Bill.
We've determined, following those discussions, that it is possible to publically release carefully selected materials which answer some of their key questions and which allow them to explain to their constituents their decision making process, but we have been very careful and the material being released will not cause any market uncertainty and it does not relate to matters which are under Cabinet consideration.
Now, of course, we could not release the whole National Broadband Network business case because of those questions of market uncertainty and Cabinet consideration. The document does not, for example, detail a Government decision on the number of places retail providers will be able to plug into the NBN. As is publically known, that decision will be made by Cabinet once the ACCC advice on the matter is received.
Importantly, the document does expand on the information in the letter that has already been released from the National Broadband Network Company over the weekend. It confirms that the NBN will be built on a financially viable basis with affordable prices for customers. It confirms that prices will decrease over time as the markets become more and more competitive and more customers join the network. It confirms that NBN Co will receive a rate of return higher than the long-term bond rate. It confirms that the cost of constructing the NBN will be far less than originally thought due to the agreement between NBN Co and Telstra.
The document is first being provided to the independent senators and members of the crossbenches and then will be made publically available.
Can I say in conclusion, major economic reform is never easy. It wasn't an easy decision to float the Australian dollar, but we did it. It wasn't an easy decision to start getting rid of tariffs in this country and engage in major tariff reform, but we did it. It wasn't easy to deregulate the country's financial industry, and structural separation is not an easy reform, but it's the right reform.
We will continue today to be making that case in the Parliament.
I'm very happy to take peoples' questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, why has it taken until the afternoon of the final day of, the day before the final day of Parliament, for you release this? Why wasn't this done weeks ago?
PM: We are releasing this to facilitate the decision making of the independent senators and also to support crossbench members who have supported this legislation. A number of them have availed themselves of the confidential briefing from NBN Co. They have legitimately said to us that they would like to be able to explain to their constituents why they've taken the decision that they have taken, and we are responding to that by putting this information into the public domain.
What we've always said, and what of course the Opposition call on us has been, is that we will not release the NBN Co business case until there is a proper process of Cabinet decision making about the points of interconnect decision, and we need ACCC advice on that and will receive it shortly; and we will not release information that will cause market uncertainty, and so the Opposition's been calling for that. We won't do that. We are prepared to release this additional information to support the crossbench members in explaining their decision to their constituents and to facilitate decision making by the independent senators.
Yes?
JOURNALIST: Is Senator Fielding onboard with this as well, and is there anything Nick Xenophon asked for that you didn't give him?
PM: Well, this information is being released to facilitate decision making by the independent senators and I obviously mean, using those words, Senator Xenophon and Senator Fielding.
Yes, Lenore?
JOURNALIST: What information is in this document? What extra information is in this document that wasn't in the letter you released on Friday? What will we know when read it that we didn't know before?
PM: Well, significantly, the document goes to timeline for product release, the sorts of products that people will be able to get through the National Broadband Network, so that's a new piece of information.
The document confirms that under all sensitivity assumptions, and all assumptions about the points of interconnect decisions, that the rate of return is in excess of the government bond rate. That is, the project is financially viable above the government bond rate on all assumptions and sensitivities.
It confirms that the total capital expenditure is $37.5 billion. That is obviously less than the capital expenditure previously publicly released of $43 billion, and that difference is overwhelmingly explained by the agreement with Telstra and the ability, therefore, to get access to Telstra infrastructure for the rollout.
So, this is very significant information.
Yes, Michelle?
JOURNALIST: This document is a fresh document that's been prepared on the basis of the report, rather than being the report's summary. Is that correct?
And are the only points, significant points, left out of this document points that are commercial in-confidence and who has chosen what goes in and what's left out of the document?
PM: The document has been put together informed by what is in the NBN business case. The Government, in consultation with NBN Co, has made the decisions about what is within this document and clearly we are not putting anything into the public domain that would cause market uncertainty and we are not putting anything into the public domain that is properly the province of Cabinet after it has received the ACCC information.
Dennis?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said you were releasing this to assist the crossbenches and independents, but they've actually had a briefing which is wider than this summary. How does releasing this assist them? Surely what you're doing is releasing something to make it look like you are giving out more information, and in fact the independents have more information than we're going to get in this document?
PM: They breed them cynical at The Australian, don't they? Let me just explain the following situation: Senator Fielding availed himself of the confidential briefing; Senator Xenophon chose not to avail himself of that briefing.
It is true that Senator Fielding and members of the crossbench that availed themselves of that confidential briefing have been given more information than is in this document. That is true because they did have access to information that we believe should not be released publicly because of the market sensitivity questions.
For Senator Xenophon, this information is obviously information he can rely on. He chose not to take the confidential briefing because he had an issue about confidentiality clauses.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you undertake, and Minister, to table your regulation in relation to anti-siphoning before the Parliament concludes this week?
PM: I'll turn to the Minister for that.
MINISTER CONROY: That's certainly our intention.
JOURNALIST: Ms Gillard, reduced prices of building the NBN is $35 billion. Does that reduce the Government's contribution (inaudible) to $28 billion? Is that-
MINISTER CONROY: -That stays the same.
PM: It stays the same.
Mark?
JOURNALIST: At the risk of going back over David Speers' ground, the information you've given us today about the difference with Telstra on board to the cost of not being on board and other points in the document you're releasing -
PM: -Sorry, I got distracted then by an accidental but somewhat violent act between the camera people, so could you just repeat that?
JOURNALIST: I thought our camera people were all pacifists.
PM: No, no, it was an accident.
JOURNALIST: The information you're releasing today, such as the difference in the cost with Telstra on board and Telstra not on board, the $5.5 billion dollars additional and other information - if it's not market sensitive and it's not before Cabinet, why haven't the people had a right to know that information before now?
PM: Well, we have been providing information on the NBN consistently. Let's remind ourselves of the journey we've been on.
I know a lot of the Parliamentary debate and particularly some of the Opposition attacks in question time have been predicated on the basis that no-one had heard about the NBN before this week. That is ridiculous and part of their wrecking campaign. The Minister, the Government, has been consistently providing information about NBN for a number of years now and it's been the subject of inquiry in this Parliament.
MINISTER CONROY: I've actually lost count of the number of inquiries that have been held into this. Mike Quigley has appeared before many of them. He's appeared at every Senate estimates since he was appointed unless he was overseas and he's been answering the questions. This argument that there is no ongoing scrutiny is just not true.
PM: And so we, against that background, to facilitate the independent senators and the crossbench having information that they can talk to constituents about and supporters about, have put this information out today.
Yes, Matthew?
JOURNALIST: You've said a number of times that will convey this information so that the independent senators will be able to, you know, explain to their constituents the basis for their vote. I suppose their constituents will think that that was a good thing. Why is it a good thing today but it wasn't previously? What is the public meant to make of the fact that you had to be dragged to this point today when you could done it a week ago?
PM: Let's just actually think about the journey we're on here. We're a Government that is determined to deliver to this country a visionary infrastructure project which will transform the way we live and work; which will mean we've got a stronger economy for the future and Australians have got access to better services, particularly health and education services. That's the vision.
Consistent with that vision we are structurally separating Telstra. Now, this is a reform literally 30 years in the making.
We have come to this Parliament to deliver that microeconomic reform, of the structural separation of Telstra. We have worked with the crossbench in the House of Representatives and now we are working with the independent senators to support and facilitate their decision making on this piece of legislation. That's entirely appropriate.
The aim here is to secure this transformative microeconomic reform, the structural separation of Telstra, and to support the delivery of the National Broadband Network.
We'll just take two more and then we'll go.
JOURNALIST: Do you and Wayne Swan intend to read the full, 400-page document before Cabinet has its next deliberation, or given the various pieces of advice, that you'll just read the summaries of the documents before you -
PM: -Well, what an absurd question, and anybody who has ever met me or anyone who's ever had a conversation with me would know how thorough my preparation is on major reforms.
We'll go here.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Senator Xenophon says that the Government has backed down. Is that how you'd characterise it?
PM: Look, our terminology, I'll allow Senator Xenophon to use whatever words he wishes to use.
We are facilitating important decision making on a transformative piece of microeconomic reform for this country 30 years in the making. There are only so many moments in a nation's history where you get the opportunity to make a decision to get something as big as your telecommunications system right. The moment has been missed in the past. It was missed with the privatisation of Telstra. We are determined that it will not be missed again and that is why we have put this information into the public domain - to support the decision making of this Parliament, which we're due in very shortly.
Thank you very much.