Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I have spoken numerous times in this House regarding the serious concerns that many in my electorate of Paterson have regarding the delivery of digital television access. Never has so little been done by so many at such expense to the taxpayer with so little outcome. This Labor government has spent millions upon millions of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars on countless glossy brochures and radio, newspaper and television adverts telling everyone to get digital ready. So we have had the spectre of many of my constituents buying digital televisions which they were not able to use, because most transmitters in my electorate of Paterson did not offer a digital signal or had very poor digital reception to say the least.

This Labor government promised through the Household Assistance Scheme that those on a pension, older Australians, veterans and people with disabilities or their carers would receive, according to the digital ready website, a high-definition set-top box, a demonstration of the new equipment and instructions on how to use it and a 12-month warranty, service and technical support. This was all at a cost to the taxpayer nearly double what Gerry Harvey said he could do the same job for. It has been more mismanagement and wasteful spending by an inept government.

This is a very serious matter. We are facing total digital conversion in Paterson by the end of November this year and many of those who were promised support through the Household Assistance Scheme have not heard anything from anyone, despite constant requests. Mrs Baker from Stroud relies on the analog self-help tower in Stroud. The Stroud tower was due to change to a digital signal in August, but that change has been put back to October. I have many elderly constituents living in Stroud who are entitled to the Household Assistance Scheme, but if the contractors do not install the relevant equipment in the next two weeks they will not have access to any television at all.

Mrs Sternbeck lives in Booral. Because the government through Regional Broadcasting Australia has decided not to upgrade the Booral tower to digital, its residents should be entitled to the Satellite Subsidy Scheme, which would give them access to Viewer Access Satellite Television, or VAST. However, when Booral residents contacted the Digital Ready hotline and the Department of Human Services, no-one there seemed to know when the existing analog tower would be switched off and their service delivered by satellite. More ineptitude!

The Duffys in Corlette are a stone's throw away from an existing tower at Gan Gan. However, as they are in the shadow of a hill they cannot receive reception from that digital tower and have to rely on the analog signal form the main Hunter transmitter at Mt Sugarloaf. They have been told that the analog signal from the Mt Sugarloaf transmitter will be switched off on 27 November and that the digital signal will not have the same footprint. Like the residents of Stroud, if the contractors from the Household Assistance Scheme do not visit their homes and install the digital set-top box by then they will be denied access to television reception.

This is a major issue throughout my electorate of Paterson. We know this government is good at making promises on infrastructure and other services. Remember the NBN, anyone? However, at least while people wait for the NBN—and that wait keeps getting longer and longer—they can still rely on existing internet services where they are available. If the government fails to contact soon those of my constituents who have been promised government assistance with the digital switchover, many are going to be denied access to TV.

The coalition has always said that the government should rethink its proposals to deliver digital television. I personally warned that it would have been better to spend the millions wasted on marketing the digital switchover; on investing in upgrading more, if not all, of the analog towers to digital in order to deliver the decent terrestrial TV service that the community quite rightly expects and deserves.

Labor continually talks a good game about looking after the less fortunate in our society—the elderly, the disabled, the lowest income earners, the battlers. However, it is its financial mismanagement and policy failures that affect those in the community who are most in need of our support. In particular, it affects those on a part pension or on as little as $30 less than the full annual pension, many of whom have now been left struggling to pay the costs of upgrading and have been offered no financial assistance by the government. It is these Australians whose major source of entertainment and news the government is now threatening to deny.

This is simply unacceptable. My constituents and I will not stand for it. We want our television signal, we want it now and we want it delivered properly and affordably through measures that should have been in place from day one. We do not want spending on glossy brochures and TV and radio ads promoting a digital ready program that is not working.

See this speech in context