Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I refer the minister to her claim that the government has:

... met our commitment to ensure affordability and metro-comparable pricing for all Australians regardless of where they live ...

Can the minister confirm that leading analyst Gartner has found that Australians in rural and regional areas will need to spend up to $1,000 on satellite dishes and aerials to access her second-rate service? Can the minister now guarantee that rural and regional Australians will not be forced to buy expensive equipment which Australians living in metropolitan areas do not need to have? How can the minister claim that she is providing ‘metro-comparable pricing’ if rural and regional Australians have to pay $1,000 just to access that service?