Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Now if the member for Bradfield does not listen to young people, that is fine but I have been listening to these people and I can go back to my electorate and look these people in the eye and say, ‘Yes, I do want to get this delivered for you. Yes, I do believe that you have a right to have the highest quality broadband services.’ I will also point out the importance of broadband for inclusion and the importance of broadband, through a ubiquitous network such as the NBN, for people with a disability. I quote Kip Meek of the Broadband Stakeholder Group in the UK—and anyone who has met Kip Meek would know of his intelligence in this area—who says that next generation broadband would improve the potential for videocommunication to compensate for reduced mobility and enhance communication for those who are deaf or hard of hearing by providing facial cues and sign language which require high definition and high frame rates. These are things which can only be delivered through a ubiquitous fibre broadband network. For those opposite who think that wireless is the solution, I say it is Physics 101 that nothing is faster than the speed of light and the only thing that is going to carry that is a fibre network. Wireless networks, by contrast, are shared resources with shared spectrum. You will never be able to deliver through wireless the benefits that you will be able to deliver through the NBN. To those who come here and say that this is about transparency and holding the government to account, I say it is not about that at all. If you support jobs, if you support productivity and if you support a 21st century solution for problems that will not go away, then you will reject this bill and let the NBN proceed.

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