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

Thank you to Senator Eggleston for his question and for his longstanding interest in the issue of broadband, especially for some of the very far-flung areas he represents in Western Australia. Broadband is critical infrastructure that supports economic growth across business, education, health and entertainment and enhances the way we communicate with each other through all areas of life.

Australia has an exponential record in broadband uptake. In just five years we have gone from a situation where 96 per cent of Australians accessed the internet through dial-up services to the position today where 3.9 million Australians are connected to broadband. We have almost done the job of connecting Australians across this vast continent. More than half of all internet users and nearly three-quarters of all business users have broadband. What matters now is the development of a scaleable, quality broadband service allowing consumers to choose the speeds which best suit their needs. We have committed more than $600 million through the Broadband Connect infrastructure program to building the necessary broadband infrastructure that will give Australia a truly scaleable, next-generation broadband network. It meets the needs and demands for ever-increasing bandwidth.

Last week I was pleased to see a consortium of telecommunication providers known as the G9 announce a commercial proposal to roll out a fibre-optic network to up to three million premises in the mainland capital cities. This consortium has said that it will submit a special access undertaking to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in May. An open access network will ensure competition for customers and businesses, will ensure that prices will be kept low and of course will ensure more innovation in this fast-changing sector. The initiative as proposed would greatly enhance the choices open to Australian consumers, and I think it is a very welcome move on the landscape.

I am asked if I am aware of any alternative policies. Despite all Mr Rudd’s posturing and prancing up and down and announcing vast amounts of money over which he has absolutely no control, we have not seen how much he thinks it will cost Labor to come anywhere near the government’s achievements and future plans for broadband. We know that Labor tried a year or so ago to jump on Telstra’s bandwagon and their proposal then to install fibre to the node, a proposal that Telstra walked away from, blowing a $4 billion black hole in Labor’s idea. Years before, we know that Labor could only really support dial-up, and another $5 billion was blown on a national blow-out that would not be worth the cheque that it was written on today.

Not only has Labor a secret plan to roll back all the consumer safeguards in telecommunications; it is failing to come up with the hard policy and financial commitment to ensure adequate broadband. We need broadband infrastructure in this country which is scaleable, and only this government is doing the hard work required to provide it.