Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Can I say to the member that what we know from international studies, including the work of the OECD, is that Australia has very high broadband prices. We know that. Then we ask ourselves, ‘What is the solution?’, particularly when we know people’s demand for broadband, for the services that broadband can bring, is growing over time. You do not need to be an expert in telecommunications to work that out. Just think about your own home use or business use of broadband services 10 years ago compared with what you use today and imagine where we will be in 10 or 15 or 20 years time. Then think about the service adaptation that we are seeing, like the service adaptation in health, where you can have a consultation with a doctor through video conferencing in real-time with the diagnostics on the page so that if you are in a rural community and the doctor is in a metropolitan centre you can converse with each other as if you were in the same place. Obviously requirements for data transfer are growing.

In these circumstances the solution the nation needs is the National Broadband Network bringing fibre with its capacity and bringing competition on price. This is pivotal to an understanding of the National Broadband Network—that retail providers will be competing on price, on the quality and innovation of their products. If you believe that competition is a good thing, if you believe that markets work best when there is competition, if you believe, having looked at other areas of human experience in our market economy, that competition has brought benefits, then you would support competition in the retail service provision in the national broadband area, and that is what the National Broadband Network will bring.

So can I say to the member opposite who asked the question: I am sure that your constituents ask you, as a new member, ‘When will I get better broadband services?’ I know that members get these questions all the time. I do, members of the government do and clearly members of the opposition do. We know that, because many members of the opposition have been out spruiking about delivery of broadband to their constituents even though they then come to this parliament and oppose it. We have got the member for Dickson, who has been out there saying that he is working hard to ensure residents in Pine Rivers have access to broadband. We have got the member for Dawson, who is urging broadband equity.

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