Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens will not be supporting amendments (62) to (68), (65) and (69)—that double lot of amendments. I certainly agree that it is absolutely critical that we get broadband to rural and regional Australia. We are totally committed to that happening and in my view Senator Conroy should have made clear that the government was going to roll out broadband from the outside in, if you like—to go to those areas which are underserviced and make sure that the rollout starts in rural and regional Australia rather than in the more profitable large city centres. The way to ensure that happening would be to make sure that the tender guarantees access to broadband for rural and regional Australia. So there is certainly an absolute commitment to that.

The reason that I think it makes sense to put the Communications Fund into the Building Australia Fund is that there is a high level of compatibility between rolling out energy infrastructure, intelligent networks, smart grids and so on and rolling out information technology. In the same way, when Basslink was built, linking it to Tasmania, we worked to make sure that we were able to attach to that the information technology capacity and so on. Increasingly, as information technology works with new energy technologies and, as I said, intelligent networks, we are going to see a recognition that you have to plan both together and maximise the synergies that those opportunities provide.

So I do not think you can continue to see communications as being separate from other forms of infrastructure when there is a high level of compatibility and you can maximise effectiveness and maximise efficiency. But I would like to hear from the government, once again, their commitment to getting broadband to rural and regional Australia. We do not want to see the blowing of a big hole in the fund for rolling out broadband—as I think the coalition’s amendments would do. That is one of the other reasons we do not support what the coalition is proposing. But we certainly do support rolling out broadband in rural and regional Australia as a priority. So I would like to hear from the government exactly how they intend to reassure everyone that that is still going to be the case.