Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband) Share this | Hansard source

I ask the minister to turn his mind to the National Digital Economy Strategy, which he just referred to, and in particular to page 21 of that strategy, which confirms what we know from the ABS: that the biggest obstacle to universal internet access in Australia is household income, or rather a lack of it, with 34 per cent of households on incomes of $40,000 a year or less not having any access to the internet. Internet access rises rapidly with household income. Agreeing, as I am sure the minister does and as we all do, about the virtues of universal access to the internet and the benefits it brings, affordability is an absolutely key issue.

In the NBN's corporate plan it estimates that, following the introduction of the NBN, customers on the lowest speed—that is the 12-megabit-per-second speed, which is really no more than and in many cases slower than ADSL2 speeds—would be charged in the order of $55 to $58 a month. There are many ADSL2 plans currently in the market—with 50-gig caps, for example—which are costed or priced at a similar or indeed lower price. Dodo offers a similar plan with a 100-gig limit for only $29.99 a month. The question for the minister to reflect on—and I will provide him with some more information to assist him an answering it—is going to be: given that affordability is a key issue in terms of universal access to the internet, how is the NBN going to make internet access more affordable if it is not going to offer connectivity at a lower cost, and indeed a markedly lower cost, than that which is currently offered in the market at the moment? I ask the minister, as he formulates his answer, to reflect on the fact that in the NBN's corporate plan it forecasts the prices for the 100-meg, 50-meg and 12-meg speeds, beyond which it is difficult to imagine that any residential user would have any conceivable appetite for additional speed, remaining constant over time. Yet we know from the authority of the OECD and from our own experience that between 2005 and 2008 ADSL prices in Australia fell by 45 per cent. That 45 per cent decline in prices was the consequence of technology and competition. The NBN, as I said, has forecast or predicted or stated that these access prices will remain the same in nominal terms through to 2020.

The minister should address this issue. This is a fundamental threshold issue. Nobody denies that fibre to the home will deliver faster speeds and greater capacity of data transmission. That is not an issue. But is it going to deliver more affordable access to the internet? There is nothing in the business case, the corporate plan or anything else that has been said by the NBN which suggests that it would. I would seek the minister's assistance in telling us how he believes the NBN is going to make internet access more affordable to low-income households.

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