Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I refer the minister to the recently released OECD broadband statistics to June 2006. Can the minister confirm that, despite her claims about the pace of broadband growth, Australia remains ranked 17th out of 30 surveyed countries for the take-up of broadband? Can the minister also confirm that Australia’s feeble international ranking in these statistics did not improve at all in the past year? Why is Australia continuing to trail its international peers in the use of this important economic infrastructure? Why has the government failed to ensure that Australian business has access to the infrastructure it needs to remain internationally competitive?