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

The only second-rate broadband package I know of is the Labor Party’s, which does not have a technical plan or one piece of paper to support it. I am very happy to talk about mine. As I have said on dozens of occasions this week, high-speed broadband will be available to 99 per cent of the population. I said it again in answer to an earlier question. The Australian Broadband Guarantee ensures that the remaining one per cent of the population, those in the most remote areas of the country who cannot get an alternative service, are entitled to a subsidy of $2,750 per customer for satellite broadband services.

The Howard government has always been firmly committed to providing a world-class broadband network to all Australians regardless of where they live. The OPEL network will extend high-speed services to 99 per cent of the population and provide speeds of 12 megabits per second by mid-2009. Under this government, 100 per cent of the population are guaranteed a broadband service and 99 per cent of the population will have high-speed broadband by 2009—about five years earlier, I think, than the very best the Labor Party can do. It is, of course, very cheeky of the Labor Party to run around trying to make a point about the difference of one per cent when with Labor’s plan we are talking about high-speed broadband coverage to only 72 per cent of the population—