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

I thank Senator Conroy for his usual misconceived question. It is very good to see the Labor Party taking such a strong interest in this nation-building broadband initiative, because this comprehensive plan—the Australian Broadband Guarantee and the OPEL contract—will ensure that all Australians will be able to access fast broadband regardless of where they live. More and more Australians are getting the message that within two years fast broadband will be a reality and, unlike Labor’s fraudulent proposal, Australians will not have to wait until 2013 to receive improved services. Unlike the Labor Party, our plan covers all Australians regardless of where they live, instead of leaving out three million households and the most needy Australians.

This is a complex piece of technology with a complex contract that is being rolled out. As I said the other day, the implementation will be subject to a detailed implementation plan together with consultation with all stakeholders as to the optimum placement of towers for the rollout. This is in stark contrast to the Labor Party, which for the past five months has not even had a plan, has had no idea where any network would go and has been absolutely misleading about the capacity of its plan to deliver even to about three-quarters of Australians, let alone to all Australians. I can understand that it is agitating the Labor Party enormously that this government has been successful in being able to roll out a whole new independent network that has absolutely nothing to do with—