Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

Today I am bringing forward the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Amendment Bill 2007. This Bill would amend the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 so that the Australian Government’s $2 billion investment in the Communications Fund is preserved to provide an income stream for future telecommunications improvements in regional, rural and remote Australia.

The Communications Fund was established in September 2005 as a dedicated and perpetual fund to provide an income stream to implement the Government’s responses to recommendations made by the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee.

This Bill protects in legislation the $2 billion principal of the Communications Fund so that only the interest earned from the Fund—up to $400 million every three years—can be drawn upon.

The Federal Opposition has announced that it will abolish the $2 billion Communications Fund and spend the entire capital on a broadband network in highly commercial and predominately metropolitan areas leaving several millions of rural and regional premises stranded without any targeted assistance for even basic telecommunications services.

This Bill will ensure that rural and regional premises are not left stranded without reliable and up-to-date services in the future.

It is the Government’s intention that the Communications Fund should be maintained at a minimum level of $2 billion, and the Bill I am bringing forward seeks to make this intention explicit.

Maintaining the $2 billion for investment into the future will enable the Communications Fund to reliably generate income that will be available for future investment in telecommunications improvements in regional, rural and remote areas.

The Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee is required to conduct regular reviews of the adequacy of telecommunications services in regional, rural and remote Australia.

The first review is required to commence before the end of 2008, with subsequent reviews being completed every three and a half years. The reviews must consider the adequacy of telecommunications services that are significant to people living in regional, rural and remote Australia.

The Committee is required to report to the Government, which in turn is required to respond in a timely way to any recommendations made by the Committee. Funding can then be accessed from the Communications Fund earnings to implement the responses that relate to regional, rural and remote telecommunications.

This process provides certainty for people in regional, rural and remote Australia that the improvements in their telecommunications services will keep pace with the rest of the nation.

In securing the Communications Fund this Bill protects the long-term interests of regional, rural and remote Australia.

Debate (on motion by Senator Mason) adjourned.