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

I hear Senator Lundy in the background there. Several years ago she recommended that taxpayers spend $5 billion on a national roll-out of dial-up internet. If we had followed her lead, not only would this have done the taxpayers’ dough but consumers would have to put up with slow dial-up internet probably for the foreseeable future. Labor’s current idea, I have to say, is no better. Labor has tied itself to one technology and one provider. It ignores the market and the needs of people who are too geographically isolated to use a fixed line solution. We should certainly have a national plan—and that is what we have—but not one based on a single network. As anyone with a passing interest in communications knows, technology changes so quickly that we need broadband infrastructure that is scalable to meet the demands for ever-increasing bandwidth. By now I think Labor should know better. Once again, while Labor fumbles the basics, this government gets on with the job.