Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

Oh, Minister, that is too kind! I am sure it will arrive and I am quite happy to sit here and listen to it if it does because what I do as a senator for New South Wales on the coalition side of this chamber is try to embark on and be involved in things that are actually going to improve things in regional communities. That is what I do. That is what I stand for. That is why I am here. That is why many of my regional colleagues are here, from the National Party to my Liberal regional colleagues. We try to improve things in regional Australian communities. What we have from this NBN is no improvement for regional communities. Maybe one day in 30 years I will stand here and eat my words and there will be this brand new nirvana of telecommunications having been delivered to the regions that at that point has not been superseded by another technology. Maybe I will, but I very much doubt it. I very much doubt it because it simply does not make sense.

While we are talking about regional Australia, something that is very interesting is the Australian Broadband Guarantee, which finished on 30 June. Whilst it is not necessarily related to this amendment, I will place on notice that I will have a discussion at some stage with the minister about the arrangements now that the ABG is finished and how that is all working, because it is as clear as mud. I will be having a discussion with the minister about how that works now and what a family moving out into a remote area that wants to hook up to satellite now has to cough up. It is not entirely clear. That is a discussion we will be having.