Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be speaking on this MPI. So important was this debate on the National Broadband Network, one of the most important infrastructure investments this nation has even seen, we had the Leader of the Opposition bump it off for his motion today. Only a very limited debate is going to be allowed on the NBN because the Leader of the Opposition took the decision in order to make sure that the member for Wentworth did not have a great deal of time and a proper debate in this parliament on the National Broadband Network. So much was the respect for the member for Wentworth, he has not even been able to get up a question on the NBN during question time at all. They have put him in on Thursday, the last sitting day, five minutes before we go into adjournment and, bang, finally the member for Wentworth has been allowed to say something.

What we have seen again in this debate is exactly what the member for Wentworth has been put in that position to do: to wreck the NBN and to talk down the NBN at every single possible opportunity. It reflects exactly what this opposition is about: don't talk about any positive propositions for how you are going to develop the country, don't talk about positive propositions for policy all across the country, and don't talk about nation building; just say 'no' to absolutely everything. That is what we have seen with the debate today on the National Broadband Network.

This network is about building the future. A government's vision for a world-leading digital economy requires a reliable, high-speed, ubiquitous broadband network. I well remember the Howard government's terrific OPEL proposition. In fact, in my electorate office the other day I was digging around and I pulled out the map provided to my electorate for what it would get under the OPEL proposition, and it was an absolute joke in terms of what fixed wireless would have provided to my electorate compared to what they are being provided with under the National Broadband Network. For anybody to come into this House and try to claim that what was to be provided under the OPEL network under the Howard government could be compared to the NBN is an absolute joke and absolute rubbish.

There were large communities in my electorate barely a half an hour out of Melbourne that would have had to rely on fixed wireless, much of which they would not have been able to access at all because there were large gaps in the maps provided. Not only that, they failed to understand that fixed wireless technology does not take topography into account. There are hills in the way. So there are large parts of my electorate that would not have been able to access it. That is why the NBN is being pursued. It is why we are pursuing fibre to the household and it is why we are pursuing the best possible technology for those communities that cannot get fibre to the household. We do not want second best in regional and rural Australia. We want to make sure that we provide them with absolutely the best that is available.

The National Broadband Network will provide access to high-speed broadband to 100 per cent of Australian premises. The NBN will connect 93 per cent of Australian homes, schools and businesses via fibre-optic cabling delivering speeds of up to 100 megabits per second or more. The opposition does not get it. People do not just sit and use one broadband application at a time; they use multiple applications. They do not want to have to close one application to open another application. It is not just about downloading home videos, which seems to be what the opposition wants us to think. It is about upload speeds, which are incredibly important as well. Again in this debate we have heard from the opposition that it is not interested in putting forward positive policies. It is not interested in nation building or what it can to develop this country. The opposition is only interested in just saying no. It is interested in trying to wreck the NBN at every single possible opportunity and it should be condemned for it.

Debate interrupted.

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