Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Polley, for the question, which is based on some entirely unfounded assumptions. Let me inform the Senate about the government’s broadband plan, which thoroughly refutes Senator Polley’s contentions. Senator Polley should not look at articles in the Courier Mail or anywhere else without checking the factual basis for the allegations. The government appreciates that if there are a number of black spots right across Australia, and some of them are around metropolitan Australia, in outer metropolitan rings of metropolitan Australia, in rural and regional Australia and more remote Australia, it is quite obvious that you need a comprehensive plan to mop up all those black spots and to actually understand how you are going to obtain coverage of at least 99 per cent of the population with a fast service at an affordable price. The government conducted a competitive bids process with, I think, 28 bidders who all came up with some creative solutions as to how to do this. And the winner of that bids process, OPEL—a consortium of Elders, the well-known Australian brand and Optus—now has a plan to roll out broadband using a mix of technologies—fibre, backhaul, enabling ADSL2+ exchanges and state-of-the-art WiMAX technology—to ensure that people who do not live near built infrastructure, people who live on farms, people who do not live near an exchange or people who live near an exchange but have not been able to get a broadband service for some considerable time and are very frustrated by this, will get a broadband service that will be 20 to 40 times faster than is currently available. And this service will be available right across Australia.

That is not to say that the one per cent who may not get this service will not have a service, because they will under the Australian Broadband Guarantee. Unlike the Labor Party, who have a one-size-fits-all approach that will not reach the difficult areas in rural and regional Australia—and in fact will mean that something like 7,000 households and premises will miss out—we appreciate that competition actually delivers choice and better prices for Australians. So we welcome small providers who under the Australian Broadband Guarantee will continue to be able to provide a service and who have under earlier stages of the government’s broadband program been rolling out services to ensure that Australians get a broadband service regardless of where they live.

Senator Polley really needs to go back to the drawing board on this one. She needs to understand that WiMAX technology is state-of-the-art technology that is quite capable of delivering the service that we are contending. It will all be independently tested and it will mean that all Australians regardless of where they live will be able to get a fast broadband service.