Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I start where the previous speaker finished and thank the secretariat and fellow members of this committee for their work. I was probably the recalcitrant member of this committee. But I thought it was important to be a link to the NBN committee, the joint committee I chair, and make sure that there was as seamless a transition from this report—a very good report entitled Broadening the debateto the ongoing work that will take place through the Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network.

The work done in this report—both the main substance of the report and the dissenting report—is important and deserves to be read by as many people as possible. There are some really good considerations for the parliament in dealing with the need for speed in improved information communication technology in Australia today.

There is a broad consensus in this parliament and the community on the importance of better ICT. A recent report by Deloitte-Access Economics titled The connected continent—how the internet is transforming the Australian economy found:

The direct contribution of the internet to the Australian economy is set to increase by $20 billion over the next five years, from $50 billion to roughly $70 billion.

The report estimates that approximately 80,000 more Australian jobs will be available in areas directly related to the internet as a result. It is a sector developing on its own, not just a tool for other sectors to use.

The three basic documents concerning the performance of the NBN are, in my view, the government commissioned NBN implementation study dated 6 May, the NBN Co. corporate plan for 2010 to 2013 and the government's statement of expectations for NBN Co. from 17 December 2010 issued by the two stakeholder ministers. All of those are publicly available. This report, alongside the first report of the Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network, released this week, are, I think, the foundation documents. They are all public for anyone who is interested to get a greater understanding of what exactly the government is trying to achieve.

In my view, many Australians are under the misconception that NBN Co. is building a government owned monopoly. I just heard it again from a previous speaker—'to own and run the wholesale platform at taxpayers' expense indefinitely, with no return to the government on its very large initial capital expenditure'. In my view, this is an incorrect assessment of what the final product will look like and what the true return to the taxpayer really is. The end product will, more than likely, be a privately owned and operated wholesale platform with a return on revenue through engagement with retail providers as the platform is built, with the opportunity for a significant return once the NBN is complete.

As a consequence, in my view, a really important question to be pursued by the parliament is when and how private equity and finance will be engaged in the wholesale platform and at what financial return to government and, ultimately, the taxpayer. The political debate of the moment is obscuring the fact that what is being built will be an asset on the financial books of the taxpayer. As with all assets, everything from a house to business investment, if it is built efficiently and effectively and if private equity is engaged in the right way at the right time, an initial spend can lead to a much larger return in the future. With that in mind, I flag to many of my colleagues and to the parliament that I will be exploring further the parliament's view of where the points of entry are for private investment alongside this initial public investment, to make sure maximum return on the parliament's investment is secured on behalf of Australian taxpayers.

This Broadening the debate report importantly, in my view, raises a question that was also brought up in much evidence received by the National Broadband Network committee. That is the question of just how NBN-ready government itself is. I think there is some very good education and promotion work being done by government to try to get community and business as NBN-ready as possible. Many, however, in the evidence gathered for the two reports, wanted to turn that question in on itself and ask government itself just how NBN-ready it is. I think it is a fair question and an important one for the government to reflect upon. Tax collection is just one example. In South Korea, for instance, where there is already 100 megabits per second to the home, 80 per cent of tax collection is now done online. Hallelujah! Compare that to our complex tax system in Australia. The internet is a faster and more reliable tool for communication with the tax office. At the moment, about 20 per cent of tax lodgements are done online in Australia. There is a huge opportunity for some simple but important administrative work on behalf of the community and businesses that government could lead on via the tax office to improve community life and business life in Australia.

There are issues around content and copyright. There are discussions going on with attorneys-general and many other players, but it has not been nailed yet. There is some urgency in that work. We are moving to a much more online environment. People can easily have products stolen online or be abused online, and if copyright laws are breached or are unclear we have a real problem with the nature of business in Australia as we transition to greater use of the internet in a whole range of applications.

Evidence was gathered of a third example. It is really practical and fulfils the nature of future use of the internet in order to value-add on services of the past. This evidence was from the Post Office Agents Association. They want to engage with the technology and applications available. They made the point that there are over 400 post offices and, yes, they are franchises of a government business enterprise, but they still do not have really good access to online services connected to their post offices. If we are fair dinkum about the post office being a community hub, particularly for many rural and remote communities, for not a lot of money in government terms—it is around $7 million to $9 million—we could deliver much improved communications opportunities to over 400 communities through their post offices. It would make the post offices of the past the community hubs of the future. That evidence is a practical example and I hope the government reflects on that in its desire to be NBN-ready as much as the broader community wants to be NBN-ready.

The only other point I would like to make that is loud and clear concerns the issue of education. Partly because of the nature of the adversarial political debate and partly because we are venturing into new areas of thinking and technology, a large number of people in the Australian community and in the business community are in need of greater understanding of the product that is being built. Much more work needs to be done by government to educate communities in applications that are possible via the internet. I would hope an organised education campaign that sits alongside the nine- to 10-year rollout is very much part of the government's agenda.

I will finish with a story. A few of us made a trip to Broken Hill on a related committee. The shadow minister was part of that trip to Broken Hill. There was a lovely story about a small town called Packsaddle. That very small remote community has, via the use of old car antennas and a bit of duct tape, essentially managed to build their own communications system so that they can communicate with the Royal Flying Doctor Service that operates out of Broken Hill. It would be wrong to assume too much about communications in Australia today when you hear that communities such as Packsaddle have to build their own communications system via car antennas and some duct tape. I would hope that everything we do runs past the Packsaddle test. We want to engage every member of the Australian community in this bill and it has to be applicable to all communities, including those such as Packsaddle. There are many others like it that are working off a low base when it comes to communications technology. The role of this parliament at the moment should be to engage the many communities such as Packsaddle much better than has been done in the past.

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