Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I am now told it is 18, so maybe I missed one, but we had dozens of different plans, all window-dressing and all designed to cover up the stalemate that was put in place by the Howard government on broadband. The Rudd government is in the process of breaking that stalemate and yesterday’s agreement was a landmark step in breaking that stalemate. It means that the government is now working in partnership with the entire telecommunications sector to deliver world-class broadband throughout Australia, to kick-start productivity in our economy and to kick-start reform of sectors like health and education.

Not only is this agreement good for our economy, not only is it good for Tasmania and for the rest of Australia but also, in my view, it will be good for Telstra shareholders. As broadband unfolds, more and more of our business activity will shift into the digital world and, as the single biggest player by far in the telecommunications sector in Australia, Telstra is superbly positioned to benefit from the improved opportunities that that will provide to all telecommunications providers. We as a government are also providing a range of compensation to Telstra, for the customers being transitioned by Telstra to the new network, for the infrastructure that Telstra owns that the NBN will now be able to use and, of course, for the government taking on board the heavy lifting of the universal service obligation that has previously been dealt with by Telstra.

All of these things are opening up new opportunities for our economy, for Telstra, for our education sector, for our health sector and for other parts of the Australian economy. But this does raise one big question: where now, in the wake of this agreement, does this leave the opposition? With the entire telecommunications sector now working cooperatively and constructively with the government to deliver world-class broadband across Australia to kick-start our productivity for the future, where does this leave the opposition? At this point, it is still blocking in the Senate, still opposing and still proposing to put forward John Howard’s program No. 18 or No. 19—yet another rinky-dink, you-beaut, acme broadband proposal that is all about window-dressing, all about pretending to tackle the problem but is in fact doing nothing. It is time the opposition reconsidered its position, got with the strength and understood that the entire sector now is working hand in hand with the government to improve broadband for the future of Australia and for the future of Tasmania and for delivering the productivity gains that we need to improve our economy and for delivering long-term sustainable growth for all Australians.

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