Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Conroy for giving me an opportunity to talk about the government’s $3 billion package to make sure that anyone outside metropolitan areas will have an opportunity to have the rollout of first-class telecommunications. The important thing about fibre to the node was that, whilst the government would have welcomed it—had Telstra made good its statements that it was interested not only in its shareholders but also in the broader Australian community in rolling out fibre to the node—it would only have been to the most populous areas of metropolitan centres and not to rural and regional areas. That of course is what mostly concerns the government with the rollout of its Broadband Connect package—ensuring that Australians, irrespective of where they live, will be able to access equitable services.

The interesting thing about fibre to the node is that, not only was it not going to be available to all Australians, as I think had been the expectation, but it was to be confined to just the populous areas of metropolitan centres. So the important thing is that, if Telstra were actually concerned about this, they could have, if they wished, proceeded with their investment. My understanding is that they had committed to doing that and had engaged in conversations with the ACCC for months—and in fact had admitted that they were, to all intents and purposes, satisfied with the talks that had taken place with the regulator that would have enabled competitors to have access to fibre to the node.

The interesting aspect of Senator Conroy’s question on fibre to the node is that his proposal—or, indeed, it might be Mr Tanner’s proposal, because we all know that Mr Tanner is really the one who is calling the shots on telecommunications on behalf of the Labor Party. It was interesting to see, just a few minutes ago, Senator Conroy faithfully reading out Mr Tanner’s argument on operational separation. Senator Conroy is totally incapable of devising his own policy in relation to telecommunications—