Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs and Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy. Minister, what are the benefits to consumers and competition of the telecommunications reforms announced yesterday?

Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to make special mention of, and thank, the member for Blair for his question, because we have had several conversations about the National Broadband Network and the importance of efficient telecommunications in his own electorate. The announcement yesterday that the government will require Telstra to structurally separate, together with the reforms announced to the telecommunications regulatory regime, will promote competition and provide better outcomes for consumers. Stronger competition in the telecommunications sector will help put downward pressure on prices, benefiting businesses and consumers right around the country.

Stronger competition will also lead to better telecommunications services and will help promote innovation in the sector. These are fundamental microeconomic reforms. They will finally deal with the longstanding shortcomings of the telecommunications regulatory regime. Telstra is one of the most highly integrated telecommunications companies in the world, and that means that Telstra has been able to maintain its dominant position in most areas of the telecommunications market. A more effective regulatory regime will help ensure competitors have fair access to Telstra’s network and will help prevent anticompetitive conduct. The anticompetitive conduct and access regimes in the Trade Practices Act have been widely criticised as being cumbersome and not providing sufficient certainty for investment. The government will reform the Trade Practices Act to simplify the access regime and ensure greater certainty.

These reforms are integral to the government’s plan to roll out the National Broadband Network, which will be an enormously powerful enabling technology for small business in particular. To take one example, the superfast National Broadband Network will enable small businesses to undertake high-quality videoconferencing facilities, and that will extend their market reach and save time and travel costs.

Through our nation-building infrastructure investment and microeconomic reform program, the Rudd government is supporting jobs and small businesses today by building the productivity-raising infrastructure of tomorrow, and there is nothing more important in infrastructure than the National Broadband Network.