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

My question is to Senator Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Can the minister indicate when the broadband contract with OPEL Networks will be signed? Is the BroadbandNow website correct where it says that the OPEL coverage will be independently tested in a laboratory before the government spends any money on the system? Can the minister advise whether this testing has now taken place? Given there are serious concerns about whether the OPEL network works in hilly and mountainous areas and when it is raining, can the minister also indicate whether the OPEL product testing occurred in a laboratory that contains hills and rain? Finally, can the minister guarantee that the testing was carried out using only a four-watt power source, under which the new network is restricted to operate?