Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for her question and her interest in the future of Australia's economy. The Gillard government recognises that today our economy is already a digital economy, and the pace of change continues to increase. The need for high-speed broadband has been demonstrated in Cisco's latest forecasts, which stated that 'internet traffic will grow in Australia sevenfold from 2011 to 2016'. That is a compound annual growth rate of 49 per cent. In Australia the average broadband speed will quadruple in the next five years from eight megabits to 36 megabits. An analysis by Ericsson released last year showed that doubling an economy's broadband speed increases GDP by 0.3 per cent. A report released last week by IBM identified the growth that will be fuelled by high-speed broadband and the industries like mining, education and retail that will gain the most.

Mr Turnbull has previously championed President Obama's broadband plans—as the Americans were the inventors of the internet, he told us. I am sure Mr Turnbull has kept his colleagues informed that the President has this week committed the US to the need for a national network, supporting one-gigabit connection—one gigabit. This is what President Obama had to say:

Building a nationwide broadband network will strengthen our economy and put more Americans back to work ... By connecting every corner of our country to the digital age, we can help our businesses become more competitive, our students become more informed and our citizens become more engaged.

What we have seen is Malcolm Turnbull champion New Zealand— (Time expired)