Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I was 11 years old, in 1984, I got my first computer. It was an Aquarius. It had 3½ kilobytes of memory. I was excited when I upgraded, finally, to a VIC-20 with five kilobytes of memory. Now, that might sound tiny, but at about that time Gareth Powell, the Sydney Morning Herald computer editor, wrote that he thought no program would ever need more than 16 kilobytes. Those sorts of statements about technology remind us that the things we can do with new technology often far outpace our imagination—and those that think that superfast broadband will just mean faster Facebook and YouTube do not get the power of technology.

It was my pleasure last week to join Senator Conroy, Senator Kate Lundy and the ACT Deputy Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, at Gungahlin Library to officially switch on the Gungahlin Digital Hub. Students studying Japanese at Harrison School engaged in a high-definition video conference via the National Broadband Network with students at Chitose Senior High School in Hokkaido. I commend both classes of students for the songs that they sang to one another.

The NBN is coming to the ACT, and it is already in Gungahlin. It is demonstrating the power of technology to improve education and health; to make businesses more productive; and to make us a more connected nation. (Time expired)