Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister aware that the Australian Local Government Association’s State of the regions report estimates that the failure to address inferior internet access could cost regions up to $2.7 billion in forgone production and 30,000 jobs in 2006 alone? Given this, how many jobs will be lost in rural and regional Australia over the next 20 years because of the minister’s failure to deliver first-class fibre broadband?