Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

Yet again we have seen the sheer incompetence and arrogance of this government in action in the chamber today. On serious issues to do with public safety, they say: ‘Just write a letter to Telstra. I’ve turned it away from my office.’ On major issues of administration, this minister does not even know what is going on in her own portfolio. In her answers she said, ‘Telstra are working with us on the metropolitan broadband black spots.’ Yet, if you go to the minister’s own website, under registered Metro Broadband Connect service providers, there is one company only, Allegro, producing wireless on the Gold Coast. Go to the minister’s website to look for registered Metro Broadband Connect infrastructure providers. Guess how many companies are registered infrastructure providers under the program the minister is claiming is saving Australia from broadband black spots? Zero registered providers. Yet the minister stands up in this chamber, misleads the Australian public and misleads this chamber by saying Telstra are registered. Not according to her own website.

The minister appeared, famously, in a Kempish—the word made famous by that senator and good friend Senator Rod Kemp—style performance on The 7.30 Report. When Kerry O’Brien asked a couple of straightforward questions the minister came out with one of the doozies of all lines. She said Australians in metropolitan areas ‘should be reasonably happy with their speed of broadband’. My emails have gone into meltdown. The ABC have a poll going and their emails are going into meltdown. Channel 7 have asked: ‘Are you happy with your broadband speeds?’ They are going into meltdown with the size of the response, with, overwhelmingly, 70 to 80 per cent of Australians saying, ‘We are not happy with the speed of our broadband in Melbourne inner suburbs, in metropolitan and outer suburbs and in regional and rural Australia.’

So what does the minister do? She issues a quiet little press release yesterday afternoon to try and cover up for the fact that she is so out of touch and so arrogant. She just slipped it out and did not circulate it to many people. It is entitled ‘Conroy misses the point on broadband in Australia’. It says:

Senator Conroy has completely misrepresented comments I made yesterday in relation to broadband services in Australia.

I was not even on the 7.30 Report. I have just read to you from the transcript: ‘Australians should be happy’. The minister goes on to say:

My comments were in relation to broadband speeds available in inner metropolitan areas of many of Australia’s capital cities.

That is right—if you can get a latte you can get fast broadband in this country, and if you can’t that’s just tough.

Senator Coonan needs to get a grip on the technological issues in her portfolio, the administration of her portfolio and, heaven forbid, she gets some vision in her portfolio to deliver Australia into the 21st century of infrastructure in broadband. It is not just the Labor Party saying, ‘Get on board Labor’s plan to take Australia into the 21st century.’ The Herald-Sun editorial says:

The Telstra mess is a national disgrace ... Yesterday, with some justification, the Government was accused of simply tinkering around the edges to satisfy its rural electorate rather than showing leadership.

That’s right—this government’s telco policy has always been ‘pork-barrel the National Party and don’t worry about the rest’. The Herald-Sun goes on to say:

This is not good enough. The Government must demonstrate leadership and decide if it can achieve its aims by working with the existing Telstra management. Too much is at stake to allow this unproductive farce to drag on.

Hear, hear to the Herald-Sun. It is not just the Herald-Sun; it is the Age as well. It says:

For all the complexities of costings and philosophical differences over policy, responsibility for this critical national infrastructure begins and ends with the Government.

The government found $3.1 billion for a trust to look after rural communication users, read pork-barrelling for National Party electorates courtesy of Senator Joyce, who proudly says that is exactly what it is for. The Age goes on to say:

It must not neglect the main game, which is the fibre network that a Government taskforce found would create benefits worth up to $30 billion. The big question now is what is the Government’s plan to ensure this vital investment in Australia’s prosperity is made?

The answer is nothing. (Time expired)