Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Tangney for his question. There is no part of Australia where telecommunications are more vital than Western Australia. The vast distances and remote communities demand the most modern and cost-effective telecommunications, and the government is absolutely committed to ensuring that they are available in Western Australia. The biggest challenge we face is the colossal mess left by the Labor Party after six years of catastrophic mismanagement of telecommunications. The National Broadband Network, which was so disappointing right across the country, completely failed in Western Australia. At the time of the election only 4,000 brownfield premises had been passed and only 75 have been activated. We are getting it back on track and now 32,000 premises have been passed. The interim satellite is so important to Western Australia. The Labor Party told a quarter of a million Australians, many in Western Australia, that they were eligible to access the interim satellite. However, due to shocking mismanagement, NBN Co only bought enough capacity to serve 48,000 people and then it delivered to them a service that was little better than dial-up—again, an epic fail.

The biggest issue in regional Australia is mobile broadband and telecommunications. In the Howard years, $145 million was spent on dealing with mobile black spots. Kevin Rudd was asked what his government was doing about mobile black spots.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton is warned!

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is what the previous Prime Minister said:

What we are doing, right across the nation, is, region by region, locality by locality, working our way through the black spots as they arise.

That is what he said. He was systematic—he was absolutely systematic, I will give him that—and he was completely even-handed. Every locality was treated the same by the former Prime Minister—everybody got nothing. Not one cent was spent on mobile black spots across Australia. We are spending $100 million and a significant part of that will naturally be spent in Western Australia where there are so many black spots. Of course, when you get to the NBN's own wireless program, which was also a massive underperformer, the previous minister tried to explain away the problems by saying, 'We had not anticipated problems from there being so many tall trees.' Imagine, in regional Australia, tall trees! We must not be too hard on the previous minister, because his comment is understandable. You see, in Conrovia there are no trees—it is a complete wasteland.