Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

To address first the contribution from the member for Corangamite about regional benefits for the National Broadband Network: because the NBN is such a transformational piece of infrastructure, it will indeed remove the current digital divide between country and city. It will deliver the same service access in wholesale prices in rural Australia as in our cities. We are rolling out some 6,000 kilometres of fibre-optic links connecting cities and regions from Perth to Geraldton, Darwin to Toowoomba and to Broken Hill along the Murray.

The $60 million Digital Regions Initiative is funding innovative trials in health care, education and emergency services in these regional communities. For example, high-quality telehealth trials in Armidale and Kiama, where the NBN will be rolled out this year, provide in-home services for older Australians with chronic conditions and for youths with mental illness. Four of the five first-release sites in Australia are in regional Australia, as are eight of 14 second-release sites. In Queensland, our most regional mainland state, the NBN will sustain 5,000 jobs per year, with about $7 billion of investment in that state. We have finished the backbone linking Geraldton, where families can now get speeds 10 times faster and at twice the download quota for the same price.

Indeed, there are benefits for urban communities as well. When I launched the national urban policy, it noted that one of the ways that we can deal with issues such as urban congestion is by removing the tyranny of distance, changing the way that we work and the way that we live as communities so that people who have the great benefit of living in your beautiful electorate along the Great Ocean Road can be connected in a similar way to which they are in the Melbourne CBD. That breaks down the tyranny of distance, which is of great benefit particularly to regions but also takes pressure off our cities.

With regard to the comments from the member for Wentworth, I say to the member two things. Firstly, retail prices are yet to be advised by retail service providers. The member would be aware of that. NBN Co. have indicated that wholesale prices are comparable. Secondly, the NBN is designed to transform the competitive environment for telecommunications services. This is an important microeconomic reform. This, essentially, provides the spine, just like—in another area of direct relation to my portfolio—the Australian Rail Track Corporation builds the track. On top of that, there is competition for freight service provision. You have to have the breakthrough such as the ARTC, and I give credit to the former government for the establishment of that corporation.

But we had tried 20 different plans under the former government to deal with high-speed broadband and its delivery. The market had essentially failed at that point to deliver the sort of outcome that was required. So the government made what I believe was the bold and correct decision to seize the initiative in the national interest: to have a bold initiative that ensured that we could compete with our neighbours in delivering high-speed broadband that is affordable and available regardless of where people live and regardless of the income that they are on. One of the great issues of broadband is, of course, that high-speed broadband does deliver significant productivity gains, but it is also a very egalitarian exercise as well. It provides access for students, for example, to information technology regardless of where they live. It is a transformational piece of technology; hence the whole design of the scheme, which was an initiative based upon the failure of the former government's 20 separate plans.

I notice that the member for Wentworth acknowledged that fibre to the home will be faster. That is why the government has promoted this initiative. (Time expired)

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