Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Protecting Services for Rural and Regional Australia into the Future) Bill 2007. This bill seeks to introduce legislation to prevent the $2 billion principal of the Communications Fund from being drawn upon to deliver telecommunications services to rural, regional and remote Australia. It is a bill that Labor opposes. The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Coonan, in her press release on 21 June 2007, made it clear that this legislation is to prevent Labor from using the Communications Fund to provide a national broadband network should a Rudd Labor government be elected. Surely such motivation is further evidence that the government does not hold the national interest as paramount. The government is more interested in trying to cover up its own incompetence than in getting on with the task of connecting the nation to world-class broadband access.

There is one little, simple, single-syllable word that characterises the Howard government’s action on the issues that matter to the Australian people. The word is ‘slow’. We know only too well that the government has been slow to even admit climate change is a crucial, compelling challenge. It has been slow to address the nation’s growing skills shortage. Infrastructure is yet another area that has suffered due to the federal government being slow to act. And now in this chamber, focusing on the issue of broadband, again the government has been slow. The only thing slower than the government’s moves in this area are the snail-paced internet speeds that many Australians have to deal with on a daily basis in family homes, in small businesses and in rural and regional Australia.

It is not in dispute that fast, reliable broadband is essential for our society—for families, for education, for medicine and health, for small businesses and for the economy. As it stands, our nation’s lack of high-speed broadband is hurting and holding back Australian families and small businesses. Australia’s broadband performance is poor. We are ranked only 16th out of the 30 countries surveyed by the OECD. We lag a long way behind the countries we consider our international peers. Yet the coalition has sat on its hands for years, only cobbling together a plan in the shadow of a looming federal election. And even now the result is unsatisfactory on so many levels—a poorly devised plan that will inhibit Australia’s potential both socially and economically.

The government’s plan is a two-tiered system which discriminates against rural and regional Australians. They will be treated as second-class citizens by the legislation the government wants to enact. Those living outside of metropolitan areas will be left with an inferior wireless service. Those living outside of the inner suburbs of any of the nation’s five major cities will have shared connection speeds. There should not be a debate over how important this issue is for a progressive and competitive Australia. There really is no argument. As we look at the detail of the government’s plan, it is hardly worthy of the tag ‘next generation’. Despite its posturing, the government just does not seem to get it.

Some months ago, Senator Coonan told The 7.30 Report that Australian broadband is ‘okay’ and that ‘no-one is complaining about the speeds of broadband in metropolitan areas’. How complacent and out of touch with Australian families this government is. Its procrastination in this matter has been costly for many people in metropolitan areas and in rural and regional areas. Mr Howard has had years to deal with broadband—as he has with other aforementioned issues—and is only acting now because there is an election on the way. Indeed, the federal government’s performance on broadband has been a broadscale hoax on all Australians, particularly those who live in rural and regional Australia.

Despite its name, the purpose of this legislation is not to protect people in rural, regional and remote areas. Senator Coonan’s claims that the government would deliver high-quality, high-speed broadband to 99 per cent of Australians, using the income generated by the Communications Fund, have been little more than an act. By the government’s own figures, the slush fund will generate a maximum of $400 million dollars in interest and other income every three years. Labor believes this is not nearly enough revenue to raise the standard of telecommunications services outside of city areas. Instead, Labor will make the Communications Fund true to its name. Under a Rudd Labor government, the fund’s capital would be used to build a national broadband network that would guarantee that those in rural and regional Australia would no longer be left behind when it comes to crucial, even lifesaving, communication. There is no risk to the government in being part of a joint venture for such a network; broadband is an essential utility and therefore an important investment.

The Communications Fund would form part of the $4.7 billion which will see 98 per cent of Australians serviced by a fibre-to-the-node network, with minimum connection speeds of 12 megabits per second. The remaining two per cent of Australians will receive a standard of service as close as possible to that provided to other users. Labor believes it is crucial that people living in regional and rural areas have, where possible, access to metro-comparable broadband. Labor rejects the claim that the coalition’s proposed new network would deliver broadband services 20 to 40 times faster than today’s average. The OPEL consortium—which was awarded the grant to build the government’s planned new network—admits: ‘Actual speeds will vary due to various factors such as distance from the base station, selected service, customer equipment and general internet traffic.’ So speeds under the government’s plan are seriously in question, with even the successful tenderer unable to confirm Senator Coonan’s claims. When I asked Senator Coonan in this chamber on 20 June why the government was spending up to $1 billion to duplicate an existing service, she replied that there was no duplication, but she then went on to say, ‘You cannot push out to 99 per cent of the population without having some minimal duplication of coverage.’

A failure to rule out investment in a duplicate network is not the only problem Labor sees in the guidelines for the government’s 18th broadband plan. They also failed to specify whom the network would reach. They omitted to state a minimum connection speed and did not rule out a government contribution for network losses—a very different story from that which the minister has been telling. Also providing a challenge to the minister’s claims is OPEL, the consortium which is providing the WiMAX network, which has stated delivery speeds up to six megabits per second, being scaled up to 12 megabits per second in 2009—a long way short of the claim made by the Howard government. After years of inaction, during which Australia slipped further and further behind other nations, and 17 previous attempts at a broadband plan, the government have come up with a substandard proposal—a second-class system. Labor believes this is simply not good enough. It is of fundamental importance that we get it right when it comes to broadband. Labor’s broadband plan uses superior technology to that of the government’s scheme; and crucially, it provides for the migration to the ultimate technology: fibre to the home.

Bringing Australian broadband into the 21st century is no easy or quick task, because our infrastructure is in such a deficient state. The Howard government’s indifference and neglect have come home to roost. They have been indecisive and painfully slow. Labor understands the importance of high-speed, accessible, affordable broadband internet for all Australians and is ready to roll up its metaphorical sleeves and get to work on this and other issues. A brighter, more competitive future when it comes to the benefits of broadband is reliant on the building of better fibre networks. Labor’s plan for a national broadband network would deliver the future to all Australians.