Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

My question without notice is to Senator Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I ask: why did the minister deem it necessary for cabinet to examine maps showing the impact of the broadband policy on the government’s 40 most marginal seats, when it was discussed? Wasn’t it because the minister thought the cabinet would be more interested in the political impact of the announcement than it would be in what it actually delivered? Isn’t the government’s focus more about the next election than about the next generation? How could the minister have allowed this critical communications policy decision to degenerate into what the Adelaide Advertiser described today as ‘a naked political exercise’?