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

A member of the opposition interjected on those words, but they are eminently sensible words. They are the words of Senator Helen Coonan in 2006. What a visionary! Let’s make no mistake: when people opposite come in here and say that they need more information to make a decision, more information to know how they are going to vote on this issue, that is simply not the case. We know that is not the case because even today, if we go to the Liberal Party website, we can see that this is their policy. Page 1: ‘The coalition will cancel the NBN,’ regardless of everything else. So do not come in here and say that you need more information. Do not come in here and say that you need an examination. Your mind is made up. I have raised this countless times in this place and outside, asking about this. Surely your mind is made up, because it says it in your own policy. Not one person on that side has contradicted me on this issue. Their policy clearly states it is to destroy the NBN.

We have heard talk about how prices for broadband are coming down. They are not; they have been going up. We remain one of the most expensive countries in the OECD for broadband. I ask again: after 12 years of thinking they could look at this issue and after 18 failed plans, what did they do? No-one opposite has answered me on the issue of their broadband rankings per electorate. I hate to break it to you, Member for Cowper, but your electorate is still the 20th worst electorate in Australia for broadband access. He has the chance to make it better and he should take it. To date, nothing that the people opposite have proposed has worked and yet they come in here and say they have got a better plan. No, this is your plan.

For the benefit of those opposite, let us have a bit of background in telco 101. The network architecture is made up of a number of layers. At the top you have the retail level with the applications and the retail services. At the bottom you have the wholesale network layer. The way you engender competition for consumers at the top is to make sure that the wholesale level is competitive. That is exactly what the NBN is. You engender competition for consumers at the retail level by effectively regulating the wholesale level.

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