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

It is by reference to underserved areas. That is entirely what the Broadband Connect new national network is about: serving underserved areas and investing government money where the market will not invest. I can understand that the Labor Party, who most certainly are poll driven, who thought of broadband as a sound grab rather than as any developed policy, do not like the fact that this government has been working on broadband now for years. Since 2004 we have already connected over four million premises to broadband, 1.3 million of those being in underserved areas. So I absolutely reject the notion that this was done for any particular electorate reason. It was done because we know that broadband is important to all Australians. And I plead guilty to knowing where this broadband network will be rolled out: it will be rolled out to nine million premises in underserved areas.