Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment Participation, Training and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Had the coalition government’s broadband rollout continued, by now electorates would have faster, reliable and affordable broadband. The broadband relied on a mix of technologies and, significantly, was much cheaper than the alternative that Labor are describing in their National Broadband Network. I know that many residents in my electorate would have assumed when they first heard of Labor’s broadband network that it would be delivered through underground cables. In fact, based on Labor’s costings of $43 billion, 70 per cent of the network will be delivered by overhead cabling. Seventy per cent of the cabling in my electorate will be strung from Stobie pole to Stobie pole. In the electorate of Boothby, many residents, the local community, put a premium on significant trees. We have many tree lined streets and high-value properties, and many residents would be concerned at the impact of overriding state and local government laws. We have already seen in the Building the Education Revolution the overriding of local government laws.

Since 1997 there have been measures in the Telecommunications Act requiring local government and state government approval for any overhead cabling, including pay TV cables. In the local government areas in the electorate of Boothby—the City of Mitcham, the City of Unley, the City of Marion, the City of Holdfast Bay and the City of Onkaparinga—I know that there will be a lot of community opposition to any overriding of state and local government laws by stringing up overhead cables. This will damage property values. There is potential damage to trees and potential damage to the cables. Even possums and birds can do damage to the cables.

Already we have seen in New South Wales that the state government has suspended development laws. In Tasmania we are seeing that the government is proposing using the cables across electricity cables and poles. If the South Australian government overrides local and state development laws to allow the stringing of overhead cables, it will have a very detrimental impact on residents in my community. I know it will be opposed by many of the 120,000 residents who live in the electorate of Boothby.