Senate debates
Tuesday, 14 August 2007
Questions without Notice
Broadband
2:56 pm
Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source
My question is to Senator Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I refer the minister to an article in the Courier Mail newspaper on 30 July regarding small broadband providers in regional and rural Australia. Does the minister agree with the article where it says that many people will not receive the government’s broadband solution because of the topography where they live? Does this mean that small broadband providers will have to save the government from political embarrassment by filling in the black spots left by the minister’s second-class system in rural and regional Australia? Can the minister now confirm that her broadband plan will not reach the 99 per cent of Australians she says will be covered, and that she will instead rely on small service providers to fill in the gaps?
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