Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Professor Larry Smarr, the Director of California Institute for Telecommunication, Information and Technology, got it right when he said:

I am concerned about Australia. We are in a once-in-30-year transition, and if you are not serious about real broadband you will be gradually left out of more and more of the emerging business opportunities, and challenged for the ones you thought you had.

However, he is not the only person concerned about access to broadband in Australia. Plenty of people living in the outer metropolitan areas of Sydney are too. If the comments of Professor Smarr do not act as a wake-up call for this government, you only need to listen to the words of one of my residents in Werriwa, Mr Rosario Maimone, who lives in Prestons. Recently, he was quoted as saying: ‘I live in Prestons, not the Pilbara, so I was shocked when Telstra said I couldn’t get access to broadband internet.’ Mr Maimone’s experience is not unique. He is one of thousands in outer metropolitan areas who lack access to high-speed broadband.

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts dismissed their concern by saying that they can access wireless broadband. I do not know when the minister last regularly used wireless broadband, but if she were forced to she would actually understand the limitations and, more importantly, the limitations on wireless broadband access plans, not to mention the costs. The government seems to have an attitude problem when it comes to residents of outer metropolitan areas, not just in Sydney but throughout this country. These people do not deserve to have their complaints dismissed so flippantly by an arrogant, out-of-touch government that does not understand that dependable, affordable access to high-speed broadband is about jobs.

High-speed broadband is the platform for future business development, much like railways and roads were in the past. Yesterday, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said that the government had been rolling out broadband policies since 2002. They have not fully rolled out, let me assure you, to the south-west of Sydney. The government should hang its head in shame that residents less than 50 kilometres from Australia’s most global city cannot get access to high-speed broadband services. The minister hinted at an announcement before the end of the week. No doubt it will be yet another committee writing yet another discussion paper about expanding broadband services. In the typical fashion of this government, there will be more conversation and no action. The government did not mention broadband once in its 2004 policy statement for Western Sydney, but, let me tell you, the people who live there want it anyway.