Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for the Arts. Will the minister please update the House on how the government is delivering on its plan for a world-class broadband service in regional Australia and what other policies are there for broadband and what would be their impact?

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Mr Briggs interjecting—

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for the Arts has the call; the member for Fadden does not. The member for Mayo is warned.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for her question, and I know how strongly she has advocated the importance of this infrastructure need in her community. We understand one of the most important infrastructure spends this nation can make is connecting the nation through fast-speed broadband. We have had the policies in place to do it and it is rolling out in a significant way. Nowhere is this more important than in our regions. I must say, in all of the times that I go to our regions, I never get the debate there as to whether we need to spend this money. All I get is, 'When is it going to be rolled out?' and 'How fast is it going to be?' So, despite the negativism that is constantly being run on the other side, the regions are not buying it because they want the broadband and they want our policy because they know it will improve their community.

For the member for Page's benefit as well as for all members of the House, I can announce that we have made a significant improvement to the speed of service in the regions. NBN's fixed wireless and long-term satellite services will be upgraded to provide broadband speeds of 25 megs download and five megs upload. This is a doubling and a quadrupling respectively of what had previously been announced so all services that are provided through that will have a significant improvement. If anyone doubts the significance of this, they should go to the regions and see how they are being serviced by these services now. There are the e-health options in places like Narrabri, which I visited, the e-education and e-health at the St Giles facility in Tasmania and the e-commerce facilities at Glen Innes in the New England electorate, where a photo business has relocated only because broadband is available.

We get that and we understand why it is important to invest, but that is not what comes from the other side of this chamber. We have had a carping opposition and disunity, and they cannot even get their act together in terms of what the policy will be.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Mr Dutton interjecting —

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Dickson is warned.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well may they laugh, Madam Speaker, but the regions understand the importance of this. The opposition have fought us every inch of the way when it comes to rolling out this service. They have sought to oppose us at every instant in this parliament. They have tried to block every piece of legislation. The difference between us and them is more than chalk and cheese. It is about kilobytes versus gigabytes. For those in the industry that understand it, they know that fully well and they will vote accordingly. (Time expired)