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

And let us be clear—because I accept that last interjection from Senator Nash, being provocative again—that this is the sort of proposal that Senator Nash herself signed up to, that she herself put her name to with the Page Foundation. How galling it must be to have not been able to convince her own colleagues to adopt her own idea and then to watch as Labor receives applause and plaudits from around the country for having the courage and initiative to go for a national high-speed fibre network. Her own colleagues rejected it. She was dismissed with a simple ‘The government will look at it’—not that they ever did. For nearly 12 months I asked the department at Senate estimates whether they had looked at the Page Foundation report. Not once did the department ever even bother to consider Senator Nash’s idea. How disappointing, how galling, how bitter it must be for Senator Nash!

We have only to look to the countries who continue to lead the way in telecommunications, including Japan and Korea, to see the countries that have invested in fibre technologies. No fixed wireless for them! Fibre-to-the-node networks offer minimum connection speeds over 40 times faster than today’s average—and I stress the word ‘minimum’. I know it is something that the minister has a lot of difficulty with. She cannot get the words ‘up to’ out. She will keep misleading the Australian public about the speeds and the coverage. If you are listening, Senator Coonan, just make sure that you put the words ‘up to’ in. I know you are not engaged in trade in commerce; otherwise Graeme Samuel would have fined you by now.

Fibre-to-the-node networks are future proof. They scale in ways that alternative technologies just cannot. Over time, they can be easily upgraded to cope with the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth. Fibre-to-the-node infrastructure is an investment. It is not a quick-fix solution. It is more costly to deploy than cheaper, less scalable alternatives. Nevertheless, the government should stand up and meet the challenge of deploying a fibre-to-the-node network across Australia.

To achieve this Australia needs a government that is prepared to invest in telco infrastructure, and oversee the deployment of a national broadband network. Australia needs a Rudd Labor government. A Rudd Labor government will use the Communications Fund to enable all Australians to have access to vastly improved telecommunication services. Labor will deliver a fibre-to-the-node service that will deliver guaranteed minimum—again I stress ‘minimum’—connection speeds that are 40 times faster than today’s average to 98 per cent of Australians. The remaining two per cent of Australians will receive a standard of service which—depending on the available technology, including fixed line, wireless or satellite—will be as close as possible to that provided by the new network. Labor’s new network will have open access. This will promote competition and drive consumer prices downward.

Labor’s carefully costed fibre-to-the-node network is based on a detailed calculation of the number of nodes required to reach 98 per cent of Australians. This includes the number of upgrades of exchanges and pillars into nodes that are required. To deliver the national broadband network Labor will use a $4.7 billion public equity injection, which includes the $2 billion asset in the Communications Fund. Under Labor’s network the Communications Fund will be used to achieve the aim for which it was intended. ‘To future proof’ were the famous words—bandaids worth $133 million. Labor will build a network that is actually future proofed, when it puts the fibre in the ground, just as Senator Nash and the Page Foundation recommended all those years ago.

Labor’s broadband network will ensure that Australians living in rural, regional and remote areas have access to affordable, reliable and up-to-date telecommunication services into the future. The national broadband network will ensure Australians living in rural and regional areas will have not just metro-comparable pricing—the bauble that the National Party and the National Farmers Federation rolled over to endorse—but also parity of service. This is in stark contrast to the Howard government, who prefer to insist on a two-tier system. Some Australians living in metropolitan areas—and we do not know who, judging by the incredibly vague and highly criticised guidelines—will have access to a fibre-to-the-node network. The remainder of the population, including those in rural, regional and remote Australia, will have to put up with a second-rate system. The second-rate system is based on the government’s favourite technology, fixed wireless WiMAX. This technology is widely regarded by industry experts as obsolete.

Under ideal conditions fixed wireless WiMAX will allow broadband speeds up to—there are those words again; ‘up to’—20 times faster than today’s average, but in reality the technology is plagued with a number of issues. Firstly, the connections speeds are shared. These things work according to the laws of physics—for Senator Nash’s and the Senate’s interest—and no amount of spin by Senator Nash when she speaks next, or jawboning by Senator Coonan, when she eventually turns up in the chamber for her own bill, will get away from the laws of physics. The laws of physics say that with wireless the further you stand away from the tower the slower the speeds and the more people using the connection at the same time the slower the speeds. Senator Nash might sit there making notes and trying to rewrite the laws of physics but it is just not going to wash. The laws of physics are the laws of physics and there is nowhere to go.

The connection speeds, as I said, are shared, meaning that the average speeds for Australians living in the outer suburbs of the major cities, as well as for those living in rural and regional areas, will only be double today’s average. So, when you hear the words ‘I’ll deliver you 12 meg in the bush,’ just remember that the average speed that they will be able to deliver over this network, if they are lucky, is double what you get today. Congratulations to Senator Nash and the National Party! As I said, the connection speeds depend on the distance from the tower. In fact, the Optus-Elders consortium, OPEL, who were awarded the grant to build the new network, have acknowledged this in their press release. You will not hear this from the other side of the chamber. The consortium say:

Actual speeds will vary due to various factors such as distance from the base station, selected service, customer equipment and general internet traffic.

There it is in black and white. OPEL have to tell the truth. I know that Senator Nash is not going to, but OPEL have to. (Time expired)