Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to contribute to this debate on the Telecommunications Legislation Amend­ment (Fibre Deployment) Bill and I respect­fully adopt many of the comments made in this debate by my colleagues Senators Macdonald, Joyce and Birmingham. The concerns that the coalition have about the entire structure of the NBN rollout remain real concerns. I think it is fair to say that it gives us no pleasure to describe the kinds of expensive pitfalls—

Senator Conroy interjecting—

I will come to that, Senator Conroy—have patience. I do not relish the thought that this might go terribly wrong and that we might find enormous costs being visited on the Australian people to clean up the mess that Labor has created with this. However, it is important to put on the record the concerns that we have and to hope that the government will pay some, albeit slight, attention to the issues that the coalition are raising here. We do have experience in rolling out important new technologies while in government, and it is important to make sure that we have the capacity to work for the best possible outcome for the people of Australia.

I want to start by raising a specific issue to do with the ACT. The legislation before the chamber is principally designed to provide a platform for the government to deploy fibre as part of the NBN, particularly in greenfield sites around Australia. It is extremely important that we establish a good basis for fibre to be available to people moving into greenfield developments around the country. Getting that infrastructure right from day one is important. In broad terms, as we have heard already, the coalition supports ensuring that infrastructure is available in a way which minimises the cost of residents retrofitting those areas later. In respect of deployment in the ACT in greenfield sites, that is largely happening already. I do not think there have been any greenfield developments for some time in the ACT that have not had proper allowance made for the rollout of broadband to all of those new areas.

My concern today is particularly about the retrofitting of broadband infrastructure in established areas of the ACT. I understand that the minister or the NBN regime will have considerable powers over the way in which that infrastructure is outlaid. In particular, I understand that it will be possible, if required, for the NBN rollout to occur in spite of, or at variance to, arrangements under local planning laws for the provision of cabling and other infrastructure requirements of the NBN. That maybe an issue that is relatively easy to deal with in some parts of Australia, but I can assure the minister that it will not be easy to deal with in the ACT. In his drive between the airport and Parliament House, I am sure the minister will have observed that the ACT—