Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Coonan. Will the minister inform the Senate how government investment is helping drive broadband take-up in Australia? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Fifield for a most timely question and for his ongoing interest in the provision of telecommunications services to Australians. As senators on this side of the chamber are aware, broadband is of great interest to a growing number of Australians and is transforming the way people do business, communicate with their families and access entertainment services. I am very pleased to inform the Senate that some very positive news about broadband take-up has been released today by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The snapshot of broadband deployment released today shows that by 30 June this year there were more than 3.5 million premises connected to broadband, representing some eight million broadband users in Australia.

The ACCC figures also show that in the year to June 2006 there have been 1.5 million new broadband connections, a growth rate of 67 per cent. The figures speak for themselves. We have gone from two million connections just a year ago to more than 3.5 million at the end of June 2006. At this rate, we are very close to breaking through the four-million barrier, given that we are now in September. The latest results for the June 2006 quarter, released today, show the third biggest quarterly rise ever with nearly 350,000 new broadband connections. This demonstrates that broadband take-up in Australia is booming; it explains why Australia is now ranked fifth out of all OECD countries in growth of broadband take-up; and it shows that the Australian government’s broadband policies are certainly taking us in the right direction. The government’s $878 million Broadband Connect program is one of the many factors driving this incredible increase in the market. Broadband rollout and take-up in Australia has after all just rolled right over Labor’s doomsday pronouncements about broadband. Not only is the take-up of broadband rocketing ahead; the technology continues to improve with ADSL2+ broadband now expected to be switched on by both Telstra and Optus to add to consumer choice of provider and faster speeds.

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

You mean real broadband.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Conroy!

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today’s broadband figures from the ACCC are very bad news for the Labor Party, and that is why Senator Conroy is so hysterical today in question time. The 1.5 million Australian premises that connected to broadband in the past year are simply rocketing Australia up the OECD league tables on broadband. It is clear that Labor hates the fact that Australia is now ranked fifth by the OECD on growth of broadband connections. Australians are embracing this technology and are taking up the ever-increasing range of services on offer under the government’s competition regime. While the Labor Party flounders on communications, without a policy on telecommunications or media, this government is getting on with the job of connecting all Australians.