Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, if you think about every significant advance in material welfare or material benefits over the last 200 years, particularly in the context of Western history, you will note that it has been accompanied by two developments: first, a quantum shift in the ability to shift people and package and, second, a quantum shift in the ability to communicate. Just think through the advances that have occurred over the last 200 years: steamships, canals, rail, telegraph, radio and TV, and internet and broadband. Each has been accompanied by or has caused a material shift in economic welfare across—and without any exception—all Western nations.

That is why, in this context of a shift to a new system of broadband, a new system of internet communication, it is absolutely critical that it be gotten right and that it be developed and implemented as a matter of absolute priority. If we take a couple of our major trading nations, we know that in the United States, for example, already 50 per cent of their population, 50 per cent of all homes and businesses, have broadband high-speed communication. In South Korea, a critical major trading partner of this country, the hit rate is currently 98 per cent. Within four years the United States will shift from 50 per cent to 75 per cent of their population having ready access to high-speed broadband communication. Yet, when we turn to Australia, the figures are still, depending on the region, around 10, 20, 25 or 28 per cent of the population having access to high-speed broadband communication, with all of the associated delays and disadvantages that go with a system developed many, many years ago.

So as we come to see what can be done about that we consider two things. We consider the immediate past and the progress that was made then and we consider the immediate future. As previous speakers in this debate have indicated, the previous government, in power for almost 12 long years, developed but did not proceed with 18 sequential and consecutive individual plans for the implementation of broadband around Australia, and each of them was found wanting, was found to be full of pitfalls and shortcomings and could not be proceeded with. As a consequence, there was no ready spread of broadband technologies and the like around this country.

All through last year, the Australian Labor Party in opposition highlighted the need for a broadband policy, the need for government involvement or regulation, the need for a new system. Why? So that we could join the rest of the world, the rest of our major trading nations, and get into the new world of high-speed communication whereby individuals and businesses can create and transfer wealth and develop things that are necessary to go forward for the next 25 years. The then opposition developed a plan to commit up to $4.7 billion of investments, along with associated equity partners, to develop and implement a plan for the spread of broadband technologies across this entire continent, with the net result at the outset sought to be that something like 98 per cent of the population would be covered and would have ready access to readily available broadband technologies—all capital cities, all major regions, 98 per cent of the population. We took that policy and explained it and sold it to the Australian people. What did they do? They said yes.

The Australian Labor Party has a plan for the future. It is going to give us broadband. It is going to give us a way forward whereby we can develop communications and communication skills so we can invest in and expand our businesses, sell more and receive more. The government received advice on the necessity for that policy. The Australian people accepted the argument and said yes. The government’s policy to have an Australia-wide broadband rollout, an Australia-wide broadband layout is the way forward. (Time expired)