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

I won't speak for the full five minutes, but I do think that this report, in terms of the rollout of 5G in this country, is considered an important issue. I want to, at the outset, thank you for the indulgence, Speaker. I also want to commend my colleagues—the member for Dobell and the member for Perth—for their participation, along with other members of this inquiry, into the rollout of 5G in Australia.

This report touched on a number of important issues. Without going through, obviously, the enthusiasm that exists in being able to see the rollout of a new platform for communications in this country, there are a lot of things that will change the way in which industry as well as communities can benefit from this new communications network, which is spelt out in the report. Some of the recommendations, I think, do need to be taken up. Principally, in relation to this last point that I mentioned, is that we do need to ensure that Australian industry actually gets why this new network will be important to the way they operate and how it will improve the efficiency of industry in this country. That is very important.

But there are three elements of this that I particularly want to touch on. Firstly, I don't find myself often favourably reflecting on the comments on former Prime Minister Turnbull, but I do think he's right on the money when he observes that particular nations need to take a very specific interest in the way that we develop capability in this space and believes there is room for cooperation between countries like New Zealand, the UK, US, Japan and Canada in collaborating on the development of the 5G network and working together to do that. I think he's absolutely on the money, and it's one of the things that we've specified in this.

We've also specified that there should be greater consideration given to the supply chain issues that exist. We are dependent entirely on two major vendors, both Ericsson and Nokia. We should find ways to spread out the number of firms that are able to contribute to the rollout of 5G in this country and we should test the arrangements that they have in place in relation to manufacturing. We've made that point in the report.

Finally, we also pick up on the point of skills and that, if we're going to roll out this network across the country and we're going to see industry take advantage with respect to the benefits of this new network, we need to have more people on the ground that are capable of assisting in the rollout. We believe that the government should dedicate greater emphasis on that and also developing an industry fund that will support R&D in relation to 5G in this country.

The final observation I make is this: I think my colleagues that are present here today recognise that committees are successful and capable depending on the level of interaction that all members of the committee dedicate to their work. On this committee, there are a number of members on the other side that do participate, but we've had some notable absences. I think that there should be greater effort made to ensure full participation by all members of the committee. Either they're on there or they're not on there. I would imagine that particularly members of the National Party would want to see vigorous representation on rural and regional communications, and I think they should take up the opportunity to pursue that. Having said that, I thank the secretariat for their support and all the people who submitted to this inquiry. This is a contentious issue for some people, but I think it gave them a platform to air their views quite thoroughly, and that definitely happened on this inquiry. Thank you for your indulgence, Speaker.