Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) 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 comments of Professor Larry Smarr, one of the original architects of the internet, that the state of our broadband infrastructure makes him ‘concerned about Australia’. Is the minister aware that Professor Smarr also stated:

We are in a once-in-30 year transition, and if you are not serious about real broadband you will be gradually left out of more and more of the emerging business opportunities, and challenged for the ones you thought you had.

Isn’t it true that the Howard government’s 11 long years of neglect of the nation’s communications infrastructure has left Australia unprepared for the future challenges it will face in the international economy? Does the minister agree with Professor Smarr’s assessment that only fibre-optic broadband infrastructure will be able to secure the nation’s future prosperity?