Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Riverina for her question. I recognise her ongoing commitment to making sure that there is significant investment in modern communications technology throughout regional Australia, particularly in the electorate of Riverina. The announcement that I had the pleasure of taking part in with the Prime Minister and the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts this morning will certainly do that. We have been through a competitive process both in terms of value and technology so that we are able to ensure that the best available technology is rolled out across regional Australia and that the maximum number of people in regional Australia have access to broadband services. The announcement this morning of $1.8 billion invested in regional Australia is enormously significant, given that roughly 50 per cent of that investment is being contributed by the Commonwealth government and the other is being matched by private sector providers to build the network across regional Australia. That means 99 per cent of people in Australia will have the ability to access broadband internet connections. It is something that all Australians obviously want. The other one per cent will also be covered through our existing Australian Broadband Guarantee program. So right across the Australian community there is an opportunity to achieve 100 per cent broadband coverage.

The OPEL network will include a mix of cutting-edge technology—WiMAX wireless, broadband and fibre-optic cable—to deliver a minimum of 12 megabits per second by June 2009. This proposal is wireless, it is fibre optic, as well as being a massive rollout of ADSL2 technology. Under this proposal, 426 exchanges that have the capability of being wound up in terms of capacity by putting ADSL2 DSLAMs in them are going to get them. They have not had them done under the current provider. They will automatically get cranked up. This technology is just the beginning. The network is specifically designed in its scalability, with speeds of up to 70 megabits a second available as technology evolves. This point has been seized upon by the NFF in welcoming and commending this announcement by the government. I quote from the NFF’s release:

The choice of WiMAX wire technology supplementing the additional ADSL 2+ technology to deliver services from the exchange to the farm is vitally important, but also provides the opportunity for scaleable high speed broadband into the future.

These people represent a lot of the businesses in regional and rural and remote Australia, and they support this announcement by the government. They support the decision we have taken to ensure that an open access regime is available right across regional Australia in terms of the competitive pressures that we want to bring to the marketplace. This will certainly do it. Importantly, it secures still the $2 billion perpetual Communications Fund that underpins the ability to fund new technology into regional Australia as and when it comes online in the future. Next year we expect $400 million to be available out of that fund to spend on new technology in rural and regional Australia. Just remember—this is the $2 billion fund that the Australian Labor Party wants to steal and spend on its proposal. Labor proposes to spend $4.7 billion on broadband, which it claims will reach 98 per cent of the population. However, most commentators say it will reach only 75 per cent of the population. Labor proposes to spend $4.7 billion on broadband—$2 billion of that stolen from the bush and the other $2 billion stolen from future ex-service men and women and their pension fund, their superannuation fund for the future. Under Labor’s proposal broadband would reach only 75 per cent of the people across Australia. But the worst point—and I know the member for Riverina will be very interested in this—is that it is proposing to reach only 75 per cent of Australians by 2013. Labor’s completion date is 2013. We have announced today a completion date of mid-2009, reaching 99 per cent of the population.

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