Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

A few months ago, in April, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy, went on ABC Radio to tell the people of Broken Hill that they could expect to have fast broadband up and running under the government’s much ballyhooed National Broadband Network by the end of 2009. I put that piece of information aside because it seemed to me to be a very optimistic promise—extraordinarily hopeful. The promise was also made to Victor Harbour in South Australia, Emerald and Longreach in Queensland, Geraldton in Western Australia, Darwin and the south-west Gippsland region. These were to be on a priority list for the rollout of the National Broadband Network. That is what the minister said in a number of press releases at the time: those regional cities would receive broadband with speeds up to 100 megabits per second by Christmas.

The reality is that the successful tenders for the construction of these cables have not yet been announced. The minister has 64 days to deliver his promise to the people of Broken Hill, the people of Victor Harbor, the people of Emerald, the people of Longreach, the people of Geraldton, the people of Darwin and the people of Gippsland—64 days.

There are many areas where the government’s election promises have evaporated into fantasy. Telecommunications promises have perhaps been the most monumental failure. Here we are, nearly two years after the last election, when Australia was promised a new world of excitement and supersonic speed when it comes to broadband, and nothing has happened; no-one has been connected.

The member for Leichhardt said he was looking forward to my contribution to this debate, and he has immediately scurried out of the chamber. He must be embarrassed, like all Labor members, that they have delivered not a thing by way of accomplishments in relation to their NBN strategy. Regional Australians are worse off today than they were when Labor were elected and improvements which would have been operating by now have been axed.

Politicians often say that the other side of politics has done nothing or has messed up what it has done. But in this case, better telecommunications, an area which both sides of the chamber acknowledge is important, this government really do have a big duck egg next to their name. There have been reviews, minor tenders, a series of grand public announcements—but that is not progress. Massive spin and the proposed expenditure of a gross amount of public money add up to zero unless they actually do something. Labor have never had a plan to deliver their broadband promise. There has been no infrastructure plan, no business plan, no financing plan, no market plan. Almost two years after the election they have now commissioned a $25 million implementation study to try and find a way to deliver on what they promised.

Worse than doing nothing, this government have actually managed to take regional Australia backwards. By cancelling the coalition’s $900 million OPEL contract to provide the regions with fast broadband, services that would have been in place by now are not. Nearly a million underserved premises would have had fast broadband speeds by the end of this year, but Labor cancelled the contract. Labor criticised the OPEL contract because it was based on wireless, but now all they are offering, in the far-distant future, is wireless for regional areas. They have backed away from their election promises again and again and again, and all they are offering is the same as the coalition would actually have had in place by now—except country people will have to wait up to another 20 years to get it!

Sadly, the NBN has always been Alice in Wonderland material. Before the election we were told that Labor planned 98 per cent fibre-to-the-node coverage, costing $4.7 billion. That was the promise that the member for Leichhardt and the member for Capricornia took to the Australian people. Now the coverage has fallen away to just 90 per cent but the cost has blown out to $43 billion. It is 10 times as expensive but more than two million Australians are going to miss out. What sort of deal is that? What a miscalculation. What a farce. What a dishonest promise to the Australian people. And where will these two million Australians live? Of course, they will be in the regions. It will be people outside the capital cities who will miss out.

The government has also specifically excluded now from its promise all towns with populations of fewer than 1,000 people. There are well over 1,000 towns in Australia with populations of fewer than 1,000 people, and they are now excluded from Labor’s broadband promises. All they can expect is some inferior technology—according to Labor—called wireless, at about one-tenth of the speed. People in regional Australia don’t count. Labor is treating regional Australians with absolute contempt. The broadband that Labor advocates is a two-speed economy. The digital economy promises apply only to the cities. Labor’s NBN will deliver third and fourth fibre networks in cities but nothing in the country and to most regional areas.

The government has said that it will now take eight years to build what it had promised to start delivering by last Christmas. It will be 2020 before country people can expect to get any broadband through the NBN. However, Goldman Sachs JBWere were quoted just recently as saying it will take 18 years for most homes to be connected—2030! Labor promised to start delivering this before last Christmas, but now it is going to be 2030 before people are likely to get this vital piece of infrastructure, as Labor described it. Under OPEL most country people would have had fast broadband speeds by now. Under Labor they have to wait until 2020 to get exactly the same technology.

In addition, Labor stole the $2.4 billion Communications Fund, which had been established by the coalition to fund technology improvements in regional areas in perpetuity, to prop up the funding for their NBN. They stole the $2.4 billion from the country and will spend it in the cities. Labor have shown nothing but bad faith towards the regions, and now they are going to ask us to trust them with radical changes to telecommunications legislation without any commitment that services will be maintained.

One very alarming aspect of the bill before the chamber is that it changes the legislated universal service obligation. Under Labor it will simply be at the whim of the minister as to whether services are provided or not. The coalition legislated the USO so that people in regional areas and other places who need services that may not be economic would have confidence that these services would be maintained. Now they just have to trust that the Labor minister thinks that the service is worth providing. It will not be legislated; it is simply at the whim of the minister and that is not good enough. Asking people put trust in a Labor minister and that their services will be maintained is a very big ask indeed. And the minister we are being asked to trust is Senator Conroy. This is the same minister who is proceeding with plans to close down analog television without having any plans in place to ensure that those who cannot receive digital television will not simply be cut off. This is the only policy that Labor proposes to deliver in the country before it is done in the cities. They are going to cut analog television services off in the country before it is done the cities, even though they have no plan in place to replace the black spot transmitters and no plan in place to help those people who cannot afford to buy a digital television set.

We have digital channels opening up and they are all being supplied in the cities first. Some of the first areas that will have their analog television cut off do not even have all of the new television channels that are being offered in the cities. That is about the only incentive for people to move across to digital television. But it is not happening in many of these key areas. Labor just intends to cut off the television reception and leave people without an option. They would never do that in the cities. This is the contempt that Labor has shown towards people in regional Australia and now they are asking us to trust them with radical new telecommunications reform and take away any obligation on the minister to seek parliamentary approval before slashing the community service obligation. The reality is that we cannot trust Labor. Their performance over their two years in government makes it absolutely clear that to trust them with reforms that are not clearly spelt out—when there is no plan for the NBN—is a monumental leap in faith. They have not earned that faith.

Before we can have any confidence that this bill will not further degrade services in regional areas, the government has an obligation to provide more information on its broadband proposals. The implementation study for the government’s proposed National Broadband Network is not due until February. It is not reasonable to make a decision about the government’s plans without knowing when, how and where the NBN promises will be met.

Telstra is currently negotiating with the government regarding models for separation of Telstra’s retail and cable networks. These negotiations are reported to be progressing constructively and they should be allowed to run their course. The Nationals will assess our attitude for any new model for telecommunications in Australia on the basis of whether it will deliver quality services and technology to regional Australia. We will support measures that increase competition and consumer protection, especially in regional areas. However, it is not clear that this bill will achieve those objectives.

We know that Telstra has lost the trust of people, even in regional areas. The Sol Trujillo era was a disaster. Telstra lost touch with its customers, it abused its market share and it lost the goodwill of the people who had relied upon it for such a long time. They forgot about their responsibilities as a service provider. However, none of the alternative suppliers or their competitors were willing to stray too far away from the profitable areas. There does need to be changes in the way in which telecommunications services are delivered in this country. Telstra has not behaved as well as it should have over recent times. I welcome the more constructive approach that the new management seems to be taking and of course they deserve an opportunity to prove that their words also will be transmitted into actions. But in dealing with this issue we also have to consider the property rights of the existing Telstra shareholders. Those rights must be respected. After all, they bought a vertically integrated telecommunications company, which the government now seeks to break up. These issues must be addressed constructively.

The Nationals recently released their telecommunications policy. It clearly states what the people of regional Australia expect and demand in the area of telecommunications. The Nationals, in coalition, believe that better telephone services, internet access and broadcasting infrastructure will ensure that regional Australians have the ability to take their share of the social and economic benefits associated with new communications technologies. A robust communications network will have a range of applications in regional Australia. It will create better health services, better education, greater employment and business opportunities.

We aim to deliver communications infrastructure to all regional Australians to provide access to high-speed broadband internet, timely and accurate weather forecasts, voice-over-internet telephony, online services such as banking, bill payments, shopping, buying and selling on auction websites and government services. We want the provision of education materials at all levels of schooling, and tertiary study. We also aim to deliver video conferencing; tele-medicine services, whether voice-over-IP telephony or, preferably, video webcam links to doctors; and, streaming media that allows users to listen to online radio stations and watch online TV stations and other audio and video programming. Fast broadband should also provide potential access to the things that have not even been thought of yet. The world is changing and will continue to change and regional Australians should have access to that new technology.

The Nationals are also determined to address the regulatory issues which have discouraged private enterprise from entering the communications industry and providing parity of service to regional Australians. We will work to create a regulatory environment favouring initiative and support for those providing services to the regions. We recognise that no single technology or network will provide efficient and cost-effective communications services, for broadband in particular, to all of non-metropolitan Australia. We are prepared to assist in the development of communications infrastructure which is suitable for a vast range of needs and applications, while also taking account of the geographical diversity in Australian regions.

The Nationals will ensure that regional Australians are integrated into the global community by fast-tracking communications infrastructure in areas with the greatest need. We recognise that, while the market will almost always meet the communications needs of people in the capital cities, government intervention will almost always be needed to ensure that those needs are met in regional and remote parts of the country. The Nationals believe that where the market cannot sustain a variety of networks in regional areas the government has a responsibility to provide an affordable single network. Public-private partnerships can be an appropriate vehicle for delivering telecommunications infrastructure in regional areas.

It is also the case that in regional Australia the greatest productivity gains can be made from high-speed broadband. The Nationals’ policy is to place a priority on rolling out fibre-optic cable to a majority of consumers in regional Australia before cable rollout takes place in areas where competition is already driving the provision of higher broadband speeds. If you have a number of fibre-optic cables in capital cities already, why duplicate them when there are large parts of Australia that do not have a single cable?

The Nationals support the continuing extension of the fibre-optic network to regional and remote communities that are reliant on wireless and microwave technology. Some of those who have the most difficult communications problems are in the most remote areas. The challenge for them is the greatest and it is not going to be provided on a strictly commercial basis. There will need to be support for those kinds of programs and it is especially disappointing that the government has failed to provide any funding in response to the recommendations of the Glasson review into telecommunications services. Reviews were being conducted on a regular basis as a part of the previous government’s commitment to regional Australia. They identified the black spots, they identified the gaps in services, they identified areas where improvements needed to be made and the government then provided funding to address those issues. This government received the Glasson report but has refused to provide any funding at all to fill in any of the remaining black spots in mobile phone telephony. It picked up one or two of the lesser recommendations of the Glasson review, but there is no money available to fill in the black spots in regional areas. This is another example of this government’s bad faith when it comes to addressing regional telecommunications.

The Nationals have been particularly supportive of Telstra Country Wide and there needs to be a commitment that the physical presence of Telstra Country Wide offices in strategic locations will be maintained. The previous government established a $2.4 billion standing telecommunications fund to ensure that new technology and services could be made available to regional Australia as they became available. It was called future proofing and that term is still relevant. As a central plank of our telecommunications platform, the Nationals commit to reintroducing a standing telecommunications fund to give a level of confidence that regional Australia’s telecommunications services will not fall behind. Labor has stolen this fund and, by stealing it, it has taken away the hopes of country people that their telecommunications needs will ever be effectively met. We need to take a broad approach that strikes a good competitive balance between carriers, that establishes a fair and transparent regulatory structure and that accommodates new technologies and solutions. New technology will be a major deliverer for advancement in our economy and unless Labor is determined to entrench a two-speed economy for Australia it must ensure that regional Australians also share in the telecommunications advances that are going to occur in our nation in the years ahead. (Time expired)

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