Pat Farmer (Macarthur, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education, Science and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all the members who spoke on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Protecting Services for Rural and Regional Australia into the Future) Bill 2007, especially the members for Riverina, Pearce, Maranoa, Grey, O’Connor and Dobell. In particular I thank the member for Riverina for her passionate plea to protect and improve telecommunications for people in the bush. It is in the interests not only of people in the bush but also of the whole nation that we provide the bush with the services that they need for the expansion of our communications networks and to assist with the nation’s wealth.

We live in a country that has the same land mass as Europe. We have a population of around 22 million people and of those people about nine million are taxpayers. We are expected to provide services to the whole nation. I would like to think that both sides of the political fence would see this country as being the greatest nation on the face of the earth. We punch well above our weight in medical research and in many other fields. We do this because we have a government that provides the people of this nation with the opportunity to be the best that they possibly can be at whatever it is that they choose to do. In saying that in this debate, I draw everyone’s attention to the needs and the plight of the people in rural and remote areas of Australia and to how important telecommunications is for them. It once again shows that the Howard coalition government has a vision for the future of the whole nation.

The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Protecting Services for Rural and Regional Australia into the Future) Bill 2007 has been brought forward by the Howard government to ensure that its $2 billion investment in the Communications Fund is preserved in perpetuity to provide an income stream for future telecommunications improvements in regional, rural and remote Australia. This bill protects by legislation the $2 billion principal of the Communications Fund so that only the interest earned on the fund’s investments—around $400 million every three years—can be drawn upon. It will also provide certainty for people in regional and remote Australia that improvements in their telecommunications services will keep apace with those in the rest of the nation.

It is important to note that Labor has committed to drain the entire $2 billion from the Communications Fund—to rob the bush of its ongoing funding—and squander it on a commercially viable network in built-up metropolitan areas. Rural areas would be stranded without future services or upgrades under a Labor government. Ironically, it is rural and regional Australians that the Communications Fund was established to protect. The whole Labor Party will end up abandoning them. Taxpayers’ funds should be used to deliver equity in underserviced areas to ensure that regional and rural Australians are not left behind in the ongoing telecommunications technology revolution.

The Communications Fund was established by the government in 2005 and provides a guaranteed income stream to fund services and infrastructure for regional communities, such as additional mobile towers, broadband provision and even fast fibre capabilities. (Quorum formed) Interest earned from the Communications Fund is used to implement the government’s responses to recommendations made by the triennial independent regional telecommunications review. This bill will prevent a future government covertly abolishing the Communications Fund, and any future government that wants to abolish the Communications Fund will have to publicly introduce legislation to do so. This whole process provides certainty for people in regional and rural areas and remote parts of Australia that the improvements in their telecommunications services will keep pace with those of the rest of the nation—and this is in stark contrast to the Labor Party’s policy. The bill ensures that the Communications Fund cannot be pillaged. It protects the long-term interests of regional and rural and remote parts of Australia and it will protect rural and regional Australia from the gross economic irresponsibility of the Labor Party.

This bill has a raft of applications that will support the nation’s communications needs. To give an example, out of this fund will come $113 million, which has also been allocated to the Clever Networks initiative, that will see improved delivery of services in regional and rural and remote parts of Australia through innovative broadband projects. It could allow an Australian company to use Australian qualified radiologists based in Israel, for instance, to support area health services by receiving patients’ scans overnight and providing expert diagnoses while the rest of Australia is asleep. This bill shows a vision for the future. It shows the Howard government’s vision for the future prosperity of this nation and I commend it to this House.

Question put:

That the words proposed to be omitted (Mr Albanese’s amendment) stand part of the question.

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