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

I am so grateful that Senator Conroy got his question in. The recent comments from Professor Larry Smarr, of the United States, really fascinated me. He said that real broadband is one gigabit per second delivered by fibre to the premises. I do not really think the Labor Party has that in mind, because just the other day Mr Rudd said, in the clearest of terms, that he would chuck $4.7 billion of taxpayers’ money at a 12 megabit per second fibre rollout. Obviously, the Labor Party is going to fall very foul of Professor Larry Smarr, who talks about real broadband as a gigabit per second delivered by fibre to the premises. Of course, this is a very useful discussion point but it certainly does not represent what is happening in comparable countries today. In fact, I was surprised that Senator Conroy, in a recent interview, talked about fibre being rolled out in China and India. In fact, fibre is not being rolled out in China and India in extraordinary amounts, because they are basically deploying wireless technology.

The comparative data which Professor Smarr is quoted as using with regard to Australia appears to be derived from an out-of-date World Economic Forum survey. I went and had a look at this survey because it shows that when you come to other countries and make comments you really should check your data. It related to the data that the Labor Party frequently comments on—from the World Economic Forum. This 2002 survey not only is five years old but relates to international bandwidth data such as undersea communications cables. It has nothing to do with broadband speeds available to consumers.

So I welcome visiting people making comments about broadband. It is a very useful part of the debate. As I have said in great detail and ad nauseam, it is not a matter of whether we should have a high speed broadband network—we can and we will. Much as I am sure Senator Conroy would love to know what the government’s broadband policy is, he is going to have to wait a few days longer.