Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about the announcement today by Labor of their proposal for telecommunications in this nation. Interestingly, we are seeing again a proposal for fibre to the node.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Think positively about this!

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very positive about telecommunications. This fibre-to-the-node proposal looks remarkably like a proposal that came out last year under the then leader, Mr Beazley. What we are seeing with this proposal is absolute proof that Labor does not care one jot about rural and regional Australia. If there was ever a reason for people right around this nation not to support Labor in rural and regional areas, this is it. What they want to do is rip out $2 billion from the Communications Fund that this government set up, pushed very hard by the Nationals, to ensure future reliability in rural and regional areas.

George Campbell (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We want to put $4.7 billion in.

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What do you want to do? You want to rip it out. Not only that, you want to rip $2.7 billion out of the Future Fund—$4.7 billion all up. This is a rehash of a Beazley policy. The only difference with this one is that it has Mr Rudd’s name on the top and not Mr Beazley’s. That is the only reason anyone is taking any notice. They certainly did not take any notice last time this proposal was rolled out, because it was not going to work.

The other thing about this proposal is that it is going to target the capital cities. Interestingly, competition is already looking after the cities. We have a range of carriers in our metropolitan areas who are doing an extremely good job making sure that this nation gets the telecommunications it needs. What about the bush? What about rural and regional areas? There is going to be no money left—not one single bit. It is those rural and regional communities that are going to miss out in the proposal that has been put forward today by Labor.

What about the carriers that are currently providing telecommunications services? I saw Senator Conroy come out with his grand plan today. What happens to all those existing providers that are already rolling out services right across this nation? I wonder what happens to them. I understand it is going to be a tender process. Interestingly, Telstra has most of the infrastructure around this nation. So I wonder what is going to happen when it goes to tender and carriers other than Telstra wants to put forward their bids—interesting! I wonder how good Telstra is going to be at giving up part of its network if somebody else happens to win the tender. They just have not thought it through. This is about a cash grab to try and win over the electorate with some grand plan that has not been thought about at all—not one single bit.

What is absolutely fascinating about today is that those on the other side opposed the sale of Telstra all the way, from beginning to end. They said: ‘We shouldn’t be selling it. Government shouldn’t be selling it.’ We knew we should be selling it because government is not in the business of delivering telecommunications, and neither should it be. The things that are going to deliver real services out there are things like competition and infrastructure. But, no, the whole time the opposition were saying, ‘We can’t possibly privatise Telstra,’ until today, when we magically saw them say, ‘Oh, gosh, let’s privatise Telstra.’ The only reason they want to do that is so they can get their hands on a bucket of money to try and buy votes. It is already being done; telecommunications services are already being rolled out.

There is another absolutely fascinating thing about the grab for the $2.7 billion out of the Future Fund. I understand that the member for Lilley in a doorstop interview on 15 August 2005 said about the Future Fund:

… we have no guarantee this will be a Future Fund which is a locked box. It will be another pork-barrelling institution … If you’re going to have a Future Fund it has to be a locked box.

Guess what—somebody just sprung the lock today. Obviously it no longer has to be a locked box, according to Labor; it can be a very open box, so that they can get the funds out and roll out more money into the capital cities, where it is not needed.

This government has made some very good decisions about telecommunications. That, combined along the way with strong economic management, means that it is this government that has $600 million on the table so that we can get better infrastructure and better services out to rural and regional areas. It is this government that has just put an extra $160 million into Broadband Connect, which, by the way, the opposition want to get rid of. On top of that, we have the $2 billion Communications Fund to guarantee services for rural and regional Australia into the future. That is what this side has done. That side want to spring open the box and get some money with a cash grab, and it is not going to do this nation any good.

Let us have a little walk down memory lane. A bit more than 11 years ago, the opposition had a $96 billion debt. The only reason that they can even think about trying to put $4.7 billion on the table is because of this government’s strong economic management. There is no way in the world under their government that they would have had any funding to do anything like what this government has done for rural and regional services and services right around this nation. They can only talk about spending that money because of our strong economic management and the hard decisions that this government has had to take to pay off that debt and be in a position where we can do things like improve telecommunications services around this nation.

It is a shameless grab for dollars. It is an old proposal repackaged under a new leader—that is all it is. The real shame about this is that it is rural and regional Australians who are going to be the big losers. It is interesting to note that this proposal is called ‘fibre to the node’. I can tell those on the other side—and Senator Conroy, whose bright brainchild this probably is—that there are no nodes where I live out in the central west and that there are no nodes anywhere near where thousands of people in regional Australia live. They are not there. This plan will not work. We will have to start referring to Senator Conroy as ‘no nodes Noddy’ because he does not understand that out there this plan will not work.

The opposition refer very slightly to rural and regional Australia. They are talking about 98 per cent coverage. The carriers that are currently doing it are already moving towards 98 per cent of coverage without one cent of taxpayer dollars. It is already happening. What I find fascinating in this enormous policy document is the bit that says:

The remaining two per cent of Australians in regional and rural Australia not covered by the FFTN network will have improved broadband services.

That is it. That is all it says. It does not say anything at all about how, why and where, and it does not say anything at all because there is not going to be any money left to do anything. Their fund will be gone, the box will be open—Pandora’s box will be well and truly open—and there will be no money for rural and regional Australia.

It is interesting also to note that Korea spent $40 billion rolling out fibre to the node on a smaller land mass than we have here. The opposition is talking about spending a bit over $4 billion for a larger land mass. You do not have to be Einstein to figure out that it is not going to work. The thing that really gets to me in all of this is that it is rural and regional Australians who are going to miss out. This is entirely pitched at the big end of town, where the competition is rolling out the services anyway. This is about Labor stealing from the Future Fund—opening up that box that they said should remain locked forever—so that they can get their hands on some money to try and win some votes. They are pitching this at the big cities to the detriment of rural and regional Australia. It is this government that will do the right thing not only by rural and regional Australians but by people right around this nation in terms of telecommunication services.