Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to speak on this report: Broadening the debate—inquiry into the role and potential of the National Broadband Network. The report was prepared following an inquiry held by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications, chaired by the member for Cunningham and helped enormously by an enthusiastic, very sharp secretariat. I thank them for their terrific assistance through the inquiry and I note the presence in the chamber of my colleague the member for Throsby, whom I enjoyed working with on this inquiry, because we believe very passionately in the role of this network in transforming the country's economic and social future. Members, regardless of their politics, largely worked cooperatively on this inquiry—though I have to say I was surprised that a minority report was prepared, but I will talk more about that later.

As someone with a deep interest in the positive impact that technology can have on improving our society, I was an enthusiastic supporter of this inquiry. Because the demand for improved internet access is not disputed, albeit except by elements of a politically motivated and policy challenged opposition, there is a need to help harness and coordinate the demand and provide an improved platform for that demand for internet services. Building the NBN is one step, but levering off that platform to improve economic, health, education and government service delivery is the next important challenge, which is why this report is particularly timely.

The report covers two crucial areas. In the first part it outlines the impact of the NBN on delivering government services, achieving health outcomes, improving the delivery of education and, importantly, the impact it will have on regional economic outcomes and employment opportunities. The report then charts out the work needed to optimise the capacity and technological requirements of the network to deliver the outcomes.

Close to 20 separate recommendations were drawn up as a result of the inquiry hearings and the submissions received. From my perspective, some of the key recommendations included, firstly, the need for government to keep implementing broadband enabled technologies into its own services and operations to help improve the way it works and help boost NBN uptake; secondly, the development of a comprehensive engagement strategy incorporating a range of approaches to promote the uptake of broadband and digital technologies during the rollout; and, thirdly, strong support for increased levels of research and innovation in the private sector, recognising the NBN's crucial importance in driving innovation within our nation.

There were two other recommendations I was particularly supportive of: finding ways to assist those who are jammed within the digital divide by improving their access to high-speed internet facilities, and promoting the development of relevant skills. I have previously spoken in the House and in this place about the great work being done by some community groups, for example, in helping people 45 years and older to learn about how to use computers and navigate their way through the net and various software programs that we take for granted in this place. The exceptionally useful program rolled out by this government, the Broadband for Seniors kiosks, is a great idea. We need to keep building on this model—and this is one of the recommendations put forward by this report. Another important recommendation that stood out to me was recommendation No. 7, which recognised the important roles of public libraries and community centres and which acknowledged that, with some work by government, we can transform these centres as public access points, enabling people to not only take their first steps onto the internet but also benefit from the improvements that come from using the net to improve government service delivery. Developing public access points will, hopefully, provide people with an opportunity to vault over those barriers. It will, potentially, open up people's eyes to a new path in their life, holding out the prospect that they may be able to take up a role in the IT sector through the use of IT and the NBN, develop a new service or start a business of their own. These are opportunities that open up with access to high-speed internet.

It is important to note that, despite the fact that the cost of technology has started to come down, getting access to IT hardware and software is still a barrier to engaging with technology. On this point of barriers to access, I have been very critical about the cost of IT hardware and software in this country. It is enormously relevant to this issue, where we are poised to have a new broadband network rolled out across the country. I have been vocal about the price differentials that exist for Australian consumers of hardware and software and about how they have been seriously disadvantaged, compared to consumers in the US and UK, who get access to these products sometimes at 80 per cent less cost. The value of the net to Australia was recently spelt out by a phenomenally useful report entitled The connected continent, prepared by Deloitte Access Economics for Google. I was stunned to see that the opposition communications spokesperson, the member for Wentworth, deride the findings of this report. That is no surprise. The coalition criticise climate change scientists, they hector economists and now, apparently, Google is also a target for championing the internet by a political party that is more interested in transforming themselves into policy Neanderthals. But this report spelt out the economic value of the internet to the economy and it argued that the direct economic value of the internet to the Australian economy is currently worth approximately $50 billion, or 3.6 per cent of GDP.

As much as there is a focus on two-speed economies that exist in this country, we need to celebrate and champion the value of the IT sector to this nation and our future. It provides jobs to almost 200,000 Australians—for instance, through software firms, internet service providers and companies providing e-commerce and online advertising services. To put that into context, the generation of 190,000 jobs as a result of occupations directly related to the internet compares pretty favourably to the mining sector, which, by May this year, employed 217,000 people.

The wider benefits of the internet are especially important. The Deloitte report argues that approximately $27 billion is generated in productivity increases alone to business and government in the form of improvements in the way they work and provide services.

I was also interested to read that Deloitte put a dollar value on the benefits of the internet to households, arguing that, for example, households get about $53 billion in benefits in the form of added convenience through things such as online banking, bill paying and accessing goods and services. Households and consumers are moving to seize on these benefits. For example, just look at how the Woolworths app shot up to be the most popular app on Apple's app store on the first day of its release.

The reason I mention that is that I feel strongly that IT pricing is an anchor on business and households, holding back export focused businesses, especially small businesses, that are competing with counterparts in other countries that are getting access to software and hardware at prices that are seriously lower than those charged here. Some small businesses have contacted me fuming that some software that is essential to them may cost them $10,000 more than what it costs their competitors in the US.

I am happy to say that I have had very productive discussions with the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, the member for Lindsay, and his advisers about this issue. If we are to maximise the benefits of the NBN, as outlined in this report, and if we are to ensure our businesses are competitive on the world stage and that households are not needlessly burdened by artificially high costs, then we do need to ask major firms, such as Microsoft, Apple, Lenovo or Adobe why they charge Australian consumers and businesses in a way that they would never dream of doing in their home markets.

Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good question.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a big issue, Member for Throsby. Thank you for your support. I am looking forward to seeing further progress on this matter in the coming weeks. I wanted to take the time to reflect on another development that stems from the improved access to broadband. As much as the emergence of the digital economy is opening up commercial and employment opportunities, other industries will confront issues as a result of access to broadband. The committee heard evidence that flagged the impact on Australia's postal sector. The spread of the internet off a platform with access to super-fast broadband is impacting on postal operations worldwide. Businesses, especially those who have traditionally been large users of postal services, are actively replacing physical forms of communication with electronic ones. The subsequent contraction in letter volumes is the single biggest challenge confronting the business model of traditional postal operations, forcing many to restructure.

Conversely, as much as the internet is leading to fewer letters, it is also leading to a growth in parcel delivery off the back of consumer purchases via the net. In Australia, our postal service experienced volume growth for most of the last decade until 2008, when the GFC fully hit. Over the last two years, the trends that have been evident for some time in overseas markets have emerged here, with mail volumes falling in both 2009 and 2010. Domestic letter volumes fell by 4.1 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively, over those periods and revenues grew only slightly. These factors have led to postal operators exploring new ways of diversifying their operations. For example, in the UK the government and the postal service are working to reposition that service over four years via modernisation of the network. However, while the UK has a large population and a smaller land mass than Australia, Australia's population growth is spread over a very large area. Considering the demand for postal services in regional Australia, along with the employment it requires, this will be an issue for policymakers here.

While Australia Post has embarked on organisational restructuring, committing $20 million over three years to prepare its 40,000 employees, there is a need to retrain the workforce and to help them deal with the industry transformation that will be occurring. I believe strongly that we do need greater structural assistance for Australia Post to help it to deal with the issues it faces.

Finally, I want to reflect on the minority report that bookends this report—minority by logic, evidence and support. While there were three opposition MPs on the committee, it appears that one member—the member for Bradfield—has really driven this minority report. You only need to see the number of times he has inserted himself into Hansard in the report to get a sense of that. Some of the arguments were pleading for evidence or reality to support them. We had the same tired arguments about cost-benefit analysis. I mentioned that the Deloitte report says $50 billion of economic worth is generated by the internet in this country, but that was then derided by the opposition because it did not fit a convenient argument that they are peddling. They ran the same old argument that no-one supports fibre to the premises, even though the ACCC reckons that this is the best competitive model and it provides greater benefit than fibre to the node. They also had some astounding claims. Here is one standout quote from the minority report: 'There is no overwhelming demand for high-speed fibre-to-the-home broadband. On the contrary, demand is weak and interest is low.' In this day and age, they think that there is no demand for high-speed internet in Australian homes. And, they reckon, we should have inquired about the benefit of the NBN before we announced it. We should have inquired about whether or not we should have an NBN, but they tried 19 times to improve broadband in this country and were unable to get their act together. They reckon that we do not need 100 megabits per second, so do they think that relying on copper will deliver higher speeds than we have now? Really, it comes down to a choice between whether you continue to roll out copper or you go to fibre, which will inherently allow for higher speeds.

They reckon that because people do not know the full potential of the NBN we should not invest in broadband. They also argue that hospitals and businesses have access to high-speed broadband and that should be enough to satisfy the public—an insane argument. Then there is the worn-out argument that claims the net cannot be accessed because of high prices, and they reckon that people cannot spend money on broadband, as evidenced by the member for Wentworth today. Absurd.

I represent electorate that has a broad range of households of varying levels of wealth. To demonstrate how weak that argument was from the member for Wentworth, which claimed that people do not or cannot use the net because of costs, let me contrast this with the take-up of subscription TV. Depending on the package you take with subscription TV, the cost roughly compares to the prices that exist out there for broadband packages. In Chifley, I am told that access to subscription TV is up to nearly 50 per cent of households. There is not a cost barrier preventing people taking up subscription TV or broadband, because a lot of those households are already there. In fact, the uptake of subscription TV is actually lower than that of broadband. Cost is not the barrier but access to the network is. I have spoken in this place of suburbs like Woodcroft and Doonside that are screaming to get internet access and cannot do so because they cannot get access to ADSL, and wireless is too slow and weighed down by consumer numbers. They would love hearing the coalition's claim there is no overwhelming demand for high-speed, fibre-to-the-home broadband.

I commend the report and congratulate the opposition on their consistency. They were unable to deliver broadband in their time and are now absolutely determined to wreck the chance of others to get access to technology that their constituents enjoy. We had today this elitist argument from the member for Wentworth whose constituents enjoy high-speed broadband access. He worked so hard to stop people on the Central Coast, on the South Coast, in the Illawarra and in Western Sydney to gain access to high-speed broadband because he thought they should not get access to broadband, while his constituents currently enjoy it. I commend the report to the House.

Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the findings and recommendations of the report Broadening the debate: Inquiry into the role and potential of the National Broadband Network. I am very proud to be standing here supporting this government that has decided to invest in Australians, to invest in our potential, by investing in the NBN, which is absolutely aligned with our long-term economic prosperity. The NBN represents, in our time, the most significant nationbuilding initiative that will set us on the right path at the start of the 21st century.

I make note of point 1.115 in the dissenting report which emphasised a quote by the CSIRO:

The future transformative impact of broadband communications, including internet access, is, to some extent, unknown.

That they see this as a negative is, I find, a little incredible, because the enablement of quality infrastructure is exactly about a belief in the future generations that follow us and a belief in the innovative capacity of Australians. And we are absolutely innovative. I was thinking this morning, before I left my accommodation, that I am very lucky to have my husband and son visiting me this week. My son has taken two days off school to come and see how the parliament works. As I left him this morning he was watching a movie on a very small iPod. Apparently he was doing the same in the car on the way down, and my husband was quite incredulous that such a thing could be happening in the car on a small device. It was not so long ago that the big television set in the middle of a lounge room, which was an immovable object and in black and white, was something that we thought was a wonderful new piece of technology. It has continued to develop. As our understanding of the potential of technology develops, we have come to have a completely different belief in and understanding of the possibility of NBN—that is, if you have an enlightened view of the future and you are not wanting to revert to some Abbottville of the 1950s.

We need to make sure that we give the young people that I have had the pleasure of teaching for nearly three decades the opportunity to advance to the future. We need to give them the vehicles to get there. The NBN is a critical vehicle. I have got absolutely no concern that they will not know what to do with it when they get their hands on it. I am absolutely confident that they will envision incredible things, and they will make them happen not only in their self-interest or in the economic interest of the nation but for the benefit of so many people in the community.

I want to address a few points: infrastructure, health, business, education and social, and the local impacts of this for my particular area. For any nationbuilding investment that this country has undertaken there have always been benefits that would have been unknown when that infrastructure was built. I am mindful that at the time I was born my father was driving a D9 bulldozer and making way for the Warringah freeway coming off the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I can remember his delight and engagement with infrastructure everywhere around the state. I remember driving up to the Central Coast for the first time and seeing the roadworks. The celebration of our vision for a future and of what infrastructure has enabled is absolutely in my DNA. Irish families digging trenches—it is kind of the way a lot of Australian-Irish people made their way. I believe in the vision we saw with the Sydney Harbour Bridge; when we look at it today it brings national pride. It is an icon because it was a vision of a bright and positive future. It was an investment in infrastructure that gave people work and it was an investment in infrastructure that gave a city possibilities in a completely new and different way. That is exactly the sort of thing that the NBN is going to offer.

In terms of health, we have been fortunate this week in the parliament to have a display about e-health applications. What an amazing display that was for anybody who got to go and see it. There is the capacity to have e-health records, the capacity for me to be on holidays up on the Gold Coast and to give permission to a doctor who might be seeing me to open a file and check if I have had a chest X-ray or a heart test recently, to find out what my medication is, to make sure that I get it. This is technology that is available to some in some places, and I am very mindful of the criticism that has been put here by the member for Chifley of this sense that we seem to have from many in the Liberal Party: 'It is okay in my city and I am quite happy with my Bentley, thanks very much, but the rest of you have to put up with your Commodore and I really don't care about it.' There could not be a better definition of the difference between the Labor Party and the Liberal Party than that sort of expression. We believe in access to the best opportunities for all Australians, not just some Australians. And when it comes to our health I believe Australians absolutely believe in total equity of access, equity of service and the capacity for equity of outcomes.

In terms of the massive change that this offers the health professionals, who want to do their very best, this is the best chance they have had in a long time to get on board with their city counterparts, to continue their own professional development and to give their patients the best advice, best access and best guidance. That is without going anywhere near the applications for health benefits for, particularly in a region like mine, aged people who want to stay in their own home. Monitoring of health can happen when we have high-quality, stable internet access that the NBN will provide tapped right into their home and applications that they can carry around in their iPod as they go for a golfing session, for example, away from home and still stay connected back to the security at home. These are visionary applications for NBN technology. They are things that enable hope and they are things that enable freedom for people in the community. But those opposite would have us lower our sights, diminish our capacity and lose our hope for the great things for the future that the NBN can offer.

With regard to business, obviously there have been some very powerful points made by the member for Throsby and the member for Chifley in terms of the application of this to our economic outlook, our economic capacity, our job-building capacity. But I want to talk on a small-business scale. I want to particularly commend some local business men and women who have a great vision for what is possible with the business applications the NBN offers on the Central Coast. I particularly want to name Paul Budde, a man who is a leader in his field internationally who we were very lucky to have at a forum that was held at Kariong at the Youth Connection site. It was hosted by Dave Abrahams, who has been a long-term champion of great things that the internet can offer us—not in an uncritical way; in a way that is very mindful and socially aware of what the NBN can offer but also in the sense of what it offers businesses and young entrepreneurs who can see a path to the future that is only available to them once we get this to their homes where they live. Then they can start their business at the kitchen table on their laptop rather than having to go through all the sorts of barriers that are currently there, including incredible dropout rates, degrading copper network and incapacity to lift their visions to reality and to make happen their dreams of businesses that link them into a greater world.

In our push for the NBN for our region, which deeply understands the benefits which come to regions such as mine, I want to commend Peter Wilson and Michael Whittaker as the CEOs of their two councils, the Wyong Council and the Gosford Council. I also want to acknowledge the leadership in recent times of Councillor Doug Eaton, from Wyong, who is the mayor there, and also Councillor Laurie Maher, the Mayor of Gosford. They get what this opportunity is to regional Australia. When all of us see people getting on trains at five o'clock in the morning to get to Sydney to a job, we yearn for the NBN to come to our electorates to allow businesses and creative people with a bit of ingenuity and endeavour to get on and make the businesses that they know they can make on the coast and employ the people that they want to employ on the coast. I spoke recently with an architect who has changed the type of work he is doing. He wants to do high-end private developments overseas. He cannot employ the three or four people he would like to employ because he cannot get a fast enough speed to be able to upload his plans and engineering to move it into an international environment. A global economy awaits his initiative and endeavour. He cannot get there without the NBN.

I could go on forever and ever about education and what the possibilities of the NBN are, but I just want to tell one brief story. Last week, I was very happy to have the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government come to my electorate. One of the great educational institutions that we have on the coast is NAISDA, which is the national institute for Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal dance. It is a great cultural learning centre as well as a great dance enabler. Many of the graduates have gone on to perform in the Sydney Dance Company and Bangarra and also to develop confidence in themselves and their culture to take back to their communities.

One of the things that happens is an exchange. Recently the whole school went up to the Torres Strait Islands and they learned a dance up there. They connected to that community. Now, back on the Central Coast, they are able in some way to have some communication with that community that they went to visit. With the NBN, with its capacity for constant interaction, the educational outcomes and the connectivity across barriers is something we can only possibly imagine at this point in time. But I know that those two communities would be far better enhanced by regular, stable conversations that were able to be offered through the NBN.

My own daughter has an opportunity to study at a fine institution, the University of Newcastle—one of the top 10 universities in the country. Sadly, for her to get there and back is a three-hour round trip. Great things have happened in being able to get things online and to watch videos online, but she cannot participate because we have not got the kind of internet access that would enable her to upload and have a conversation. That is where the future of education becomes real, where we can actually engage connectively with other people in other spaces at other times. For too long, people in remote and rural Australia have been marginalised. They have had to leave their families, their jobs and their emotional support and move away. There are so many adult women and men who want to re-engage in education. They are connected into their communities. They have kids in schools. They cannot up and move. They want to stay living where they live. The NBN will give them the possibility to do that and to further their education and develop their skills.

In terms of social matters, I want to turn particularly to a couple of experts who gave some advice to the committee. This is about Australians in rural and remote areas. I do not live in a remote area and part of my seat is rural. It really should be those opposite who are making these points but for reasons of mindless, small political point scoring they have decided to dissent from the findings of the NBN and continue to have their litany of whingeing and negativity about what is really is a nation-building project.

We have Mr Mark Needham from the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review telling us that the inadequacy of stopgap, second-rate, second-class services is really impacting on the psyche of Australians in remote Australia. His point is that, from a social inclusion perspective, people feel isolated. People feel they are not part of the whole. They cannot do the things that they see some people doing on television or that they hear about. The effect of not having equitable service is that they do not feel part of the whole. What a shame for this country that we have allowed such a divide to continue when this technology really was available. Those opposite had 19 goes at redressing this. They must have known it was a problem, but they were incapable of delivering. That is unlike this government, which is getting on with the job—and not just in this area.

What do the National Farmers Federation, a friend of the National Party, have to say about it? Let us put it on the record, because those opposite will not do it:

The NBN is also likely to provide opportunities to link groups within the community across regional Australia and provide social services and support. Opportunities range from—

listen to this list—

connecting industry members (for example Dairy Australia's web forum); to providing mental health support to individuals (for example the e-headspace counselling service)—

which is well supported and encouraged by this Labor government—

to forums which connect and support individuals who may be isolated by circumstance or geography.

There is more from Robert Walker, Chief Executive Officer of AgForce Queensland, and the McKinlay Shire Council. Time is running out, so I am going to come to a close with comments from the McKinlay Shire Council, because I think they sum it up. The McKinlay Shire Council said:

… the NBN will supply faster connections for residents wishing to communicate visually—

Who with? They went on:

… family and friends, through media sources such as Skype. Although McKinley Shire's physical location may place large distances between loved ones, the NBN will assist in eliminating this void. Irrespective of our remote location, residents of McKinley Shire deserve equity of service.

It is not only the people in the McKinlay shire who deserve equity of service; all Australians deserve equity of service. It is not okay for some to have a Bentley and some to have a Commodore.

Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It could be a Datsun.

Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not care—I am not really into cars—whether it is a Commodore or a Bentley. I just want what everybody else wants. It could be a Datsun. It could be a Toyota; my brothers tell me they are very good. The reality is that we all deserve the same vehicle to move to the future that the NBN is going to offer us, and that is what the Labor Party will endeavour to deliver very, very soon for all Australians.

Sitting suspended from 13:06 to 16 : 02

George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a member representing a regional area, I have a keen interest in communication technology and how it can level the playing field for the regions. Regional Australia and the bush have always been at a disadvantage due to reduced access to services and facilities or, indeed, in some cases no access at all. Communication technology has managed to bridge some of these gaps, and an upgrade to Australia's broadband infrastructure could bring services and the bush closer. However, the Liberal-National coalition believe Labor's NBN will fall well short of the mark.

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications inquiry and report, Broadening the debate: inquiry into the role and potential of the National Broadband Network, should have been a warning that the planned NBN would fall short of the mark. Had this inquiry been conducted at the appropriate time—that is, before the rollout of a $43 billion NBN, and I am expecting that to be even higher at somewhere over $50 billion—it might have gathered the information required to make an informed, unbiased report. That might have resulted in an upgrade to our broadband infrastructure that truly closed the gap for regional and rural areas. Instead, this report is clearly a politically motivated exercise to provide a manufactured support for the government's poor policy decision. The inquiry set out to find information that it could use to support the Gillard government's NBN program—which is already being rolled out.

What we have seen with the rollout of the NBN to date is nothing more than a political campaign. There was not enough planning and research prior to the policy announcement of the NBN in 2009. You cannot conduct an inquiry halfway through the process, because the government is hardly going to produce a report that tells the truth, and that is that the NBN that you have already rolled out is not a good idea.

Key elements of the rollout have been determined by political advantage, and it has still been a disaster. The rollout has been a case of shoot first and ask questions later—'Don't worry about consulting with the industry; just start rolling it out,' 'Don't worry about the planning and how it works; just start rolling it out,' and 'Don't worry about the benefits it will provide or, more importantly, will not provide; just start rolling it out.' The government has shot first and then asked the question later.

Believing in the mantra 'Build it and they will come', this government thought that, if they just threw a billion dollars around and built something, the people would come. So they built something. They started to roll out an NBN, and guess what: people did not come. Wait a second—yes, they did. Some did. When the Prime Minister and the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, along with the member for New England, pushed that big red novelty button to apparently turn on the NBN in New England, how many people were hooked up to the service? How many people do you think were hooked up to this NBN? Seven people. One of those seven, infamously, admitted he hooked up to the service just so he could play World of Warcraft online faster. So the Gillard government rolled out what will probably end up being a $50-plus billion taxpayer funded piece of infrastructure so that a sword-wielding virtual elf warrior can slay orcs and trolls a little more quickly and realistically.

If this report had been done at the start, it might have warned why people would not come. The people did not come because they do not want fibre to the home, unless they want to be an elven warrior. The demand simply is not there. The report covers examples of some of the great things that high-speed communication technology can do. But there are a few problems with those examples. Firstly, there are very few examples of applications that require the 100 megabits that fibre would provide. The high-speed real-life videoconferencing that links, perhaps, a specialist in the city with a patient in the bush is done with a speed of 20 megabits. I note that among the examples cited in the report is a trial of aged-care technology in the Hunter region. The technology provided video and voice communications with the elderly and, according to the report, was a successful application of the NBN. What the report does not mention is the fact that this technology required a speed of just 512 kilobits per second. That is only half of one per cent of the NBN's 100 megabit capability.

This is an issue that is noted by Dr Michael Williams, the Director of the Child and Adolescent Health Service at the Mackay Base Hospital in my electorate of Dawson. He said:

Good telehealth services are and can be provided using current technology and facilities. It is not necessary—

I repeat: not necessary—

to have the NBN to deliver much more effective telehealth.

I should also note that Dr Williams did not make this comment as a Liberal-National party stooge or as a supporter of the Liberal-National party. On the contrary, Dr Williams is the president of the Mackay Conservation Group and an avid supporter of the Greens, the very same party that is in bed with Labor on the rollout of the NBN.

The second problem with examples of this nature is the constant bleating about linking remote and rural communities with specialists in the city. The NBN will not be in truly remote and rural communities. Remote communities and much of rural Australia access broadband through wireless and satellite technology right now. Under the NBN, they will continue to do so but, worse still, at much lower speeds than their capital city counterparts and in fact regional city counterparts and quite possibly at much higher costs than they currently pay.

I want to turn now to the little rural parish of Kelsey Creek, a small, rural, cane-growing area next to Proserpine in my electorate of Dawson. Kelsey Creek is probably like many other smaller rural parishes in my electorate like St Helens Beach, Mcewens Beach, Dunnrock, Strathdickie or Cungella. Possibly all of these places or most of these places, just like Kelsey Creek, will receive a satellite service under the NBN. I am reliably informed by Kelsey Creek residents Mr Lloyd Fox, who some might kindly refer to as very IT literate, and his son Justin that the NBN will actually be detrimental to their particular situation when it comes to internet access. Currently the access that the Fox family have is to satellite internet through the internet provider SkyMesh. They have a monthly download limit of six gigabytes of peak data and 12 gigabytes of off-peak data at a cost to their family of $89.95 per month. That is what they currently get—not the NBN.

Under the NBN proposal, the only service they will get is satellite—they have to go through a satellite service because wireless and optic fibre will not go to this rural and remote community—and that service costs $99.95 per month. That is an additional $10 a month, or $120 a year, that the NBN will cost compared to existing internet services. Most importantly, it is putting upward price pressures across the ISP sector. Perhaps, if young Justin Fox and his dad were not so internet literate and the Fox family just used it for email, they might be on a simple, one-gig data plan, costing them a very affordable and reasonable $19.95 per month through their current satellite provider. The NBN satellite alternative for the same one-gigabyte service comes with a price tag of $44.95 per month. That is $25 a month dearer and $300 a year extra. This will, without doubt, see ISPs providing satellite broadband and putting up their prices across the board.

The biggest impediment that we have to broadband access in this country is cost, particularly for people in rural areas, who, I am very reliably informed by the good people at the ABS, are much poorer in income than their city counterparts. This cost pressure that the NBN will put on the provision of satellite internet services to places in my electorate like Kelsey Creek, McEwens Beach, Giru or Cungulla is only going to further erode the ability of many families to be connected to the internet and the digital economy. This government is actually denying rural people access to broadband through this NBN package. One aspect of this report that should have been considered prior to any rollout is the evidence that points to a better approach, an approach that bridges the gap and secures a better deal for rural and remote areas.

I would like to talk briefly about communication black spots, because the NBN that is being rolled out at the moment does not address communication black spots at all. To highlight the significance of black spots in our communications network, I want to bring to the attention of the House one particular tragedy in a black spot in my electorate of Dawson. In December last year, a teenage girl drowned at a popular swimming hole near Alligator Creek. Che-Nezce Perrie Shepherd was 17 when her foot became wedged between rocks in the creek, and a freak surge of water resulting from an exceptionally heavy downpour rapidly rose. Her friends, unable to free her, tried to call for help on mobile phones. Because this popular swimming hole is a black spot, they were unable to raise the alarm in time and Che-Nezce drowned in her friends' arms. I have raised this specific issue in this place before to point out what has not been done with existing communications, but I am pleased to say that, since then, the community support has prompted Telstra to address this particular issue—but no thanks to the government. The government can roll out billions of dollars on the NBN, but that NBN will do nothing for telecommunications that will prevent tragedies like this occurring in the future. Every day—fortunately, in less tragic ways—black spots in our communications network hinder businesses and the lifestyles of everyday people in regional and remote areas. Businesses in Mackay or Townsville do not need the NBN; they need their current communications to work. They need their mobile phones to work and the black spots cleaned up. This is one of the issues that should have been covered by a report before any alleged solution was rolled out.

My final point about the NBN is this. For the benefit of Hansard, I am holding up a Blackberry mobile phone. It could be an iPhone or an iPad or an EPC with wireless broadband capability. As one of the younger members in this place, at 33 years of age—still a long way in front of the member for Longman!—I can say that the trend in technology for our generation is mobility. It is mobility, it is wireless, yet here we are spending tens of billions of dollars on the wired network that is the NBN. It simply does not make sense.

Debate adjourned.