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

Thank you, Senator Conroy, for the question. It comes as absolutely no surprise; in fact it is rather predictable from a Labor Party which is nothing but a puppet and is doing the bidding of Telstra. We know that Telstra and the Labor Party are hand in glove, as we found out from documents produced in the last couple of days. Nevertheless, I am more than happy to continue to respond to the same questions that are asked of me of both Labor and then of Telstra. So, here we go.

Telstra is complaining about a letter sent by my department to households that, according to data held by my department, cannot currently receive a metro-comparable terrestrial broadband service such as ADSL. The letter advises these residents of the government’s Australia Connected initiative and the new OPEL WiMAX and ADSL2+ high-speed broadband network that will cover those particular households in the near future. It is something for them to look forward to. And it is entirely appropriate, I would have thought, to inform the constituents of government initiatives, especially for a program of this nature which involves $958 million of government funding to extend high-speed broadband to 99 per cent of the population at prices they can afford.

The recipients of the letters were persons, based on data held by the department, considered to be not well served with an affordable metro-comparable broadband service. So, once again, Telstra, true to form, has threatened action against the government, and I do not propose to comment any further on that particular point. However—