Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Paradise, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker! It is almost like being a Western Australian. Member for Canberra, have I got a deal for you in relation to the units in Chifley that you mentioned in your speech. You said that 75 units had no access to broadband. Tomorrow, Member for Canberra, I can get all of those residents connected to a broadband system faster than ADSL—and it is not satellite. If you would like me to tell you the way to do it after this speech, I am happy to do that. It is available now, tonight. You basically misled parliament tonight when you indicated that those people in those units cannot get broadband. They can get broadband, and I will explain how it is possible. That is one of the problems—getting everyone to understand the technology and how things can be done. I have good news for you.

For those who are listening to this broadcast tonight—wherever you are across this big, brown land of ours; from the north to the south, from the east to the west—I want you to know what this Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Communications Fund) Bill 2008 in the parliament tonight is about. The bill is giving the parliament the licence to steal from the Australian taxpayers. They are pretty emotive words, but that is effectively what the Labor Party is asking the parliament for tonight. The former government set aside $2 billion, partially out of the sale of the proceeds of Telstra—

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