Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (15:23): Yesterday, the privileges committee did hand down a report that found that there was improper interference in the functions of this parliament, and there is no way that anyone in this chamber can get around those conclusions, which ought to raise very serious concerns for senators in this place and, indeed, for members in the other place. It is worth observing also that the report that was handed down yesterday was adopted in this chamber without opposition and that it makes a series of very acute observations about the issues that arise in relation to the raids that took place during the last election campaign. Let us recall the gravity of that decision to execute a search warrant during an election period. What we saw was that, at the direction and request of a wholly-owned government business enterprise, a search was undertaken to seize documents from a sitting parliamentarian—from a senator, Senator Conroy, who had been tenacious and assiduous in chasing down the absolutely grotesque failures associated with the NBN project in the period since Mr Turnbull, the Prime Minister, assumed responsibility for that project. Before I move on to considering the nature of those failures, I want to put on record again, because it appears to be difficult for senators on the other side of the chamber to understand this, that we have no criticism of the AFP. We make no criticism of the AFP because, as is observed in the report that was adopted here yesterday, the officers who executed that warrant did so in good faith and in the belief that they were pursuing a legitimate complaint. My concern is about the nature of the complaint and the reason that that complaint was brought forward, because it is hard not to observe the correlation between the grotesque failures and enormous shortcomings in the NBN project in the period since Mr Turnbull had responsibility for it and the desire to uncover whistleblowers who had blown the whistle on these shortcomings. What has happened since Mr Turnbull took over this project? He promised a great deal about providing an NBN that would be cheaper and more effective than the one— Senator O'Neill: Faster. Senator McALLISTER: Faster and sooner. But what actually happened? The cost of the NBN, on the watch of Mr Turnbull, blew out to $50 billion, more than twice what had been promised by Mr Turnbull during his campaign. We had a promise from Mr Turnbull that every Australian household would have access to the NBN by 2016, and where are we now? At this point in time, more than seven million Australian households are still waiting for that service. Are people satisfied with the service that they are receiving from the NBN? No, they are not at all, and the number of complaints about the NBN has blown out by about 150 per cent in the last year alone. Who is responsible for this failure, you ask? There is no escaping it because one person and one person alone has claimed responsibility for this project, and that person is Mr Turnbull. That person is the Prime Minister. It is hard not to see a relationship between this failure, the Prime Minister's responsibility for this failure and the extraordinary decision undertaken by the NBN Co during an election to pursue a complaint that resulted in a raid on the offices of a sitting member of parliament who had been pursuing that failure. It is time for the government to come clean about their role in this process, and I am afraid I have no confidence in the assurances provided here today, because, time and time again, instead of direct answers, we see obfuscation and deferral on issues of great significance in relation to the integrity of processes by this government. The Senate has applied itself to examining this issue and the legal issues. It is time for the government to do the same. Question agreed to.