Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (Senator Coonan) to questions without notice asked today relating to broadband telecommunications infrastructure.

If ever there were a day when a government was exposed for what it is really about, it was today. Today we have a leaked email from Senator Helen Coonan’s office which demonstrates beyond any shadow of a doubt that this government is not interested in the national interest, nor is it interested in the public interest. It is interested in one thing and one thing only: votes in marginal seats for its own re-election campaign.

This email demonstrates that this government has, once and for all, passed its use-by date. It is obsessed with its own interests. It is obsessed purely with its re-election and nothing else. Good policy does not matter; just ‘Where are we going to get the votes to win the election, and what sort of sham policy can we put up?’ The government fails the national interest test. Its priorities have been set out in its email, in which a minister’s office tells a department to ‘go and get me maps and details on the following priority seats’, which, coincidentally, are all marginal. Let me read the list again just to highlight the shame involved in this policy pronouncement by the government: Kingston, Stirling, Bonner, Macquarie, Bass, Deakin, Solomon, Wakefield, Makin, Hasluck, Moreton, Blair, Lindsay, Eden-Monaro, Page, Dobell, Braddon, McMillan—and I could go on. This is what obsesses this government. It does not have a national interest, or a national vision; it has a plan for a quick-fix bandaid solution to get it through the next election. That is its political priority. The government is not even really announcing a fibre-to-the-node network. It has announced a committee. It is so afraid that Ken Henry will blow the whistle again—like its sham water policy off the back of an envelope. It is so ashamed of its performance on water it has tried to dragoon Ken Henry into its selection process.

Ken Henry is an eminent public servant and an eminent economist, but what does he know about the ins and outs of fibre-optic technology? I am talking about WiMAX, and I could be doing Mr Henry a disservice but I am sure he will point that out to me if I am. He is there because the government got caught out on its water plan, its back-of-the-envelope, $10 billion spend on water. Mr Henry is there to make sure that the National Party and the rural and regional Liberal senators across the other side of the chamber do not get to stick their paws in the honey jar and rip off the Australian public again.

Today we have seen that it is not just Senator Ronaldson and not just Senator Eggleston—we know that Senator McGauran does not understand technology; we saw the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts demonstrate how out of depth she is on this issue. We asked her a question about the coverage of WiMAX and she said, ‘Oh no, look, isn’t it great; we can discuss 50 or 20 kilometres.’ But here it is on the minister’s letterhead, which even has her face on it. It says: ‘WiMAX is fourth generation wireless technology that provides high-speed broadband connections over distances of up to 50 kilometres.’ The Optus one actually produces the truth—20 kilometres. Optus are not prepared to gild the lily, but this government is.

Let us be clear about this. The minister would not answer this question. They say the definition of wireless is:

Broadband wireless will use public and apparatus licensed spectrum. The term WiMAX is used in this fact sheet as a generic term to describe a family of technologies that includes broadband wireless access.

Why have they got to say that? Because they will have to use public shared spectrums which will lead to interference. Can the Optus network formally be described as a WiMAX network? That was a simple question, and the minister ran and ducked. What WiMAX standard is the Optus wireless network using? The questions will haunt the minister until she answers them. They will haunt Senator Ronaldson and Senator Eggleston. Those are the questions. You claim it is WiMAX— (Time expired)