Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I do really welcome this question because the campaign that is being conducted by those opposite and some sections of the media about this matter has been inaccurate and irresponsible. Thirty-eight thousand have been installed. If there were some substantial problem here, given that they have been generally installed across the electorates of those opposite, we might have heard a peep about it. If something were going wrong we might have heard something about it from those opposite. We have heard nothing, because this is a program which has integrity. It is one that has been supported by those opposite. This is what the member for Mayo had to say about this on 25 May 2009:

It is right that the government does help Australians, particularly those at the lower end of the income scale, to switch over to digital TV.

What hypocrisy, what absolute hypocrisy. The costings that have been used and the way in which this has been approached have not taken into account that when these things are installed there is a service which goes with it. It is not just a question of the set-top box. I know there are members over there who are going into the homes of pensioners and who think they have got good value. But they are not speaking up for the pensioners of Australia. And we make no apology for supporting the pensioners of Australia with this important program because, if it were not there, too many of them would be left in the dark when the digital switchover happens. So this is a good program, it has a good social purpose, but once again it is being absolutely trashed by those opposite for base political purposes.

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