Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If anyone could explain to me what Senator Conroy was just rabbiting on about, I would be very grateful. Apart from a bit of rhetoric and some of the old cliches, it was just five minutes of absolute rubbish. Let us have a look at the facts and see where Labor stand on these issues. Those of us in this chamber will well remember when Labor was in charge of telecommunications. Do you remember that we had the analog phone one week and within a few weeks Labor, without any warning to anyone, without any plans for transition, simply said they were going to get rid of the analog network? That of course left everyone in country Australia without access to a mobile phone. That is typical of Labor’s approach not only to telecommunications but across the board. They do not give a damn about people in country Australia. Absolutely nobody believes the Labor Party proposal for their rollout. Sure, it might do something for the capital cities but those of us who live in regional Australia are going to get it in the eye yet again

This is not me suggesting this. All of the serious commentators are also very critical of the Labor Party proposal. I refer you to the comment by ABN AMRO. They said about Labor’s proposal:

The Labor proposal will take industry back 20 years to Government provision, gold-plating and restricted rollout.

They further went on to label the Labor proposal as ‘inefficient’ and they said:

It does not resolve access regulation issues but entrenches them and adds new inefficiencies.

They went on to conclude that the Labor proposal:

... re-establishes a conflict between Government as owner, whose dividends rely on access prices, and as regulator of access.

Most of the serious commentators think that Labor’s proposals are quite ridiculous and unworkable. As to the proposal for the price mentioned by Senator Conroy, we do not know what the actual price is. At one time of the day he said it was $8 billion. A couple of hours later it was $9 billion. Then it was $10 billion. He is all over the ship.

Whatever the price, I think it is clear from international experience and independent costings, and indeed Telstra’s own numbers, that a network servicing 98 per cent of the Australian population with a minimum broadband speed of 12 megabits per second could not be built for $8 billion or $9 billion or $10 billion. Everyone knows that this rollout will not reach 98 per cent of Australians, and again it will be country people who Labor ignore.

The cost of the rollout depends on landmass. For Singapore, with some 660 square kilometres of landmass—about half the size of Sydney—the fibre rollout cost something like $5 billion. So for half the size of Sydney it cost $5 billion and Senator Conroy is trying to pretend that you can do the whole of Australia for $8 billion or $9 billion or $10 billion. The fibre rollout in South Korea—and, as senators will know, South Korea is approximately half the size of Victoria—cost the South Korean government some $US40 billion. Labor claim they can cover all of Australia for $7 billion, $8 billion, $9 billion or $10 billion. But in South Korea, half the size of Victoria, it cost some $40 billion.

Telstra, as I recall, was widely reported as having costed a nationwide rollout at something like $30 billion. So where are Labor going to get the other $20 billion or $30 billion from, once they embark upon their crazy scheme? Again, it will come out of the Future Fund—the fund that this government has responsibly put aside for unfunded Public Service superannuation. Labor are going to pinch it from there and put Australia back into the sort of economic and financial management regime that it was under when Labor were in charge. (Time expired)