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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister confirm that, 18 months after the Metropolitan Broadband Connect program was announced, there are no—not one—registered infrastructure providers under this program? Can the minister also confirm that Telstra is not participating in this program, as the minister tried to claim last week? What does the minister have to say to Australians living outside ‘the leafy city suburbs’ who have no prospect of receiving world-class broadband under the Howard government?