Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question because I know that she campaigned strenuously on this issue before she won the seat. The development of the National Broadband Network is critical for the regions. We have heard in this parliament before how it will lift the national productivity. In no place is this more apparent than in the case of the regions because it will give them greater economic diversity and obviously the ability to obtain better services. The transformative nature of this is enormous. This is not just about improved text, voice and video in the download sense. This is also about the capacity to upload material, in particular important data which is crucial to future applications. We have heard in this parliament already from the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth what it can do for e-education. That can only be the case if the opportunity is there to make those applications. With the Minister for Health and Ageing in e-health, and with commerce the ability to obtain and access the global supply chains, the opportunities for e-commerce in regional Australia are enormous. In my other portfolio, the opportunity for e-arts and e-creative industries is also enormous.

I had the opportunity in the fortnight that the parliament was up to visit a number of regions. I went with the member for Lyne to Port Macquarie and it was very interesting there when we had discussions with Country Energy about the opportunities that they were looking for with smart grids so that they could get energy efficiency into homes connected to the national grid. I also had the opportunity to visit some five of the evocities that are involved in a program that we are supporting. There it was apparent that not only do these cities have in common their involvement through evocities but also that Charles Sturt University has a campus in every one of those cities. They are looking in the space of e-education and e-health and creatively combining those. The opportunity to do that effectively will not exist if this National Broadband Network does not proceed.

The truth is that, in all of the visits that I have had and in those of my colleagues, people out there get it. They understand why it is important to get this infrastructure down. The question that we have to ask ourselves—and I have been asked in the question, ‘What are the threats to this?’—is: we just do not get why the other side do not get it. Here they are talking about the emphasis being still on wireless services—sufficient being sufficient for regional communities. That is nonsense. Go and talk to them and they will explain to you why it is not sufficient.

Those on the other side have also opposed the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill, which is integral to the structural separation. It is a recipe for higher prices. This is the policy view of the opposition and its spokesman. But when it comes to the spokesman’s investment he is the Jerry Maguire of the opposition. We know where he has put the money that he has been shown and it is in backing the NBN. We just want him to put his mouth where his money is and get behind the backing of this proposal.

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