Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Through you, Mr Deputy President, there have been 11 years of hopelessness. The government have been playing catch-up to Labor’s announcement about a broadband plan for Australia. In 11 years they have done nothing. They have sat on their backsides for 11 years and tried to fool the Australian people, but the Australian people will not be fooled. I will continue my comments about hopelessness by referring to the hopeless answer by Senator Coonan today when she was asked about the promise she made to John Laws and 2UE listeners about government funding on infrastructure duplication. She threw around a few weasel words and finally got to ‘minimalise’. What a hopeless effort that was. I take it from the minister’s answer that she did mislead John Laws and the listeners of 2UE.

Another example of the government’s hopelessness being uncovered was an article that I read with interest today on the front page of the Australian from that very professional and well-regarded journalist Mr Sid Marris. He certainly is very clear in his mind in what he says in the opening paragraph:

Optus will make significant inroads into potentially lucrative broadband markets in Brisbane and Perth—

and these are the key words—

despite the Government’s claim that taxpayers would not be used to build networks where the market should fight it out.

Well, here we go: hopelessness for 11 years has been uncovered. This minister dithers. In answer to question after question, we get five minutes of psychobabble from the minister. We never get a definitive answer. She has perfected psychobabble. And on the subject of confusion, this minister, as Senator Conroy remarked, sneaks around after hours and makes changes to websites—I think we are on mark 4 of the government’s broadband plan. But I could not make any sense out of the answers—and I feel like I am misleading the Senate in saying that, Mr Deputy President, because they were not answers; they were absolute embarrassments to this government. The government had a clean-out of their frontbenchers a few months ago but I think they stopped short before they got to the last quarter.

Someone should throw this minister a lifeline. This minister is clearly out of her depth. She really has no idea what mark we are up to at this stage. I urge those on the other side to do your mates a favour, for God’s sake, and interrupt, help her out—do something—because I learned one thing in my previous days: when you are in a hole, you normally should stop digging.

I also want to talk about the minister for communications—but maybe that should be ‘the minister for leaked communications’, when we find out that 40 Liberal Howard seats were targeted for this plan in some sort of kit. There had to be 40 Liberal held seats. In my home state of Western Australia, those seats—I will share them with you, Mr Deputy President, and with honourable senators opposite—are Hasluck, Stirling, Kalgoorlie and Canning, four Liberal seats. Let us not talk about Brand, Cowan, Swan, Perth or Fremantle, which are all in dire need of a quality high-speed broadband plan. No, they do not get a mention. They do not get a mention because they are Labor held seats.

There is an article in the West Australian that I would like to bring to your attention, and it was written in today’s paper by Mr Nick Butterly. The heading was ‘Broadband plan stays secret’. So, not only are we confused and not only can we on this side of the chamber see what is actually going on—a poll driven, tired, arrogant, out-of-touch government playing catch-up politics—but the newspapers around the country have got it and the voters of Australia have got it. They know damn well that they do not have a quality broadband plan or broadband access, and they can see through this government’s rhetoric. Mr Butterly says that some of the fastest-growing parts of Perth, which is the capital of my home state, including ‘the booming centres of Rockingham and Mandurah’ are ‘likely to be denied’ world-class services.

Just to let you know, Mr Deputy President, down in Brand, according to the data collected in the 2001 census, there were 15 secondary schools, 56 primary schools and 12,268 businesses in a population of 188,000 people. Quite clearly, why should the people of Brand be denied access to quality broadband? I will tell you why: because it is not a Liberal held seat. (Time expired)