Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I refer to the letters the minister has sent to 500,000 Australians telling them that they are not currently able to access wireless broadband. Can the minister confirm that her letter was sent to both the Tumut and Bega telephone exchanges? Can the minister now explain why she sent a letter to the Bega and Tumut telephone exchanges to tell them that they have no broadband access? Isn’t it the case that both of these exchanges not only have broadband access but actually help to provide it to the local community? Is the minister really so desperate to sell her second-rate network that she is reduced to sending letters to telephone exchanges? How could the minister be so out of touch and, frankly, incompetent?