David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The theatrics that we see here today are a pathetic attempt to conceal the pathetic plan that we were left when we took government—Labor's plan to create a so-called NBN. It was a never-never scheme for Australians. It was one of those grandiose plans that Kevin Rudd decided to come up with that had no substance—made up on the back of an envelope. The reality is we are delivering. We are delivering the tools of the 21st century for every community, particularly my community of .

In the electorate of Maranoa, which takes up 45 per cent of Queensland, we are delivering telecommunications through a coordinated and sensible approach. In fact, it is this government that has, for the first time in this nation's history, appointed a regional telecommunications minister. When we talk about inequality, we are making sure that we deliver real outcomes for people in rural and regional Australia. Sixty-one per cent of the NBN has been rolled out across my electorate of Maranoa already, not only through fibre-to-the-node but through fixed wireless and through the Sky Muster satellite.

We are delivering to households and are making sure, for the first time in this nation's history, that we have designated data plans for children who are receiving distance education. It is abhorrent to think that, until this government came into power, we were letting young children in outback stations go without the tools they needed to get a proper education. We have delivered that because we know what it is to deliver on inequality. We know what it is to make sure, no matter what your postcode is, that you get a proper education, and we are delivering on that. Couple that with the announcement by Minister Nash, only in the last month, that we are going to double the data for those people on Sky Muster. This is also about allowing them to trade and take advantage of those trade agreements that we have put in place as a government. This is something we should be very proud of. When you talk about wanting to go and find Ma and Pa Kettle from every community, let me tell you that nearly 14,000 households have been put onto the NBN in Maranoa. We have had 35 inquiries over the last 12 months. That is 0.2 per cent in terms of the complaints we've had about the NBN. This is a nation-building project. I grant you, there will be some complaints. But when you look at that percentage you can see that this is nothing more than a Labor fallacy, hiding behind the fact that they failed to plan properly. We are delivering for the people of rural and regional Australia.

We are coupling that with a mobile phone black spot program. For the first time in this nation's history, we, as the Australian government, have put our hands in the pockets of government and gone out and invested in telecommunications, particularly in rural and regional Australia, where the commercial tension is not there for telcos to go and build on their own. The reality is we have put over 500 towers in, and we continue to roll these towers out throughout rural and regional Australia, in particular, because those are the tools of the 21st century that we need. We need to have mobility in what we are doing in our day-to-day practices, because we are the economic engine room of this nation. The electorate of Maranoa contributes more to the GDP per capita than Townsville, Toowoomba or the Gold Coast. That's without taking into account the significant energy that's being created in the electorate of Maranoa through the three coal-fired power stations.

It is quite interesting, on a day of such momentous occasion when we are tackling energy prices, that the matter of public importance is something on the NBN. It goes to show that Labor is bereft of ideas and policies. They play behind theatrics and lie to the Australian people. The reality is we are delivering. We are delivering now on energy policies and also on telecommunications, to make sure that we have the tools that we need to take advantage of the trade agreements that we've made. It is something this government does quite proudly, because a government's responsibility is to put an environment and infrastructure around its people. We have done that. We have done that with the trade agreements and also with the small business tax cuts—that is the environment. But the infrastructure is the connectivity that we are undertaking. We are making sure that we are rolling the NBN out, and on time—not six to eight years later, as this mob on the other side would have achieved. The reality is that this is real delivery. We are making sure that we empower the Australian economy and the Australian people to be their very best.

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