Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Is the minister aware of concerns of the Australian Local Government Association President, Paul Bell, that wireless broadband does not replace the need for fibre-optic cables in rural and regional Australia? Hasn’t Mr Bell rightly stated that fibre is much faster and can support a much wider range of services than wireless? Why does the minister think it is acceptable for metropolitan Australia to have access to a much wider range of services than rural and regional Australia? Why is the government bragging about entrenching a second-class level of telecommunications service in rural and regional Australia rather than delivering first-class fibre broadband?

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

Thank you to Senator Polley for the question. The answer to her question is that this government believes all Australians, regardless of where they live, should be able to have access to first-class telecommunications services. The announcement that I made today with the Prime Minister ensures that very high speed broadband will be available for 99 per cent of the population, whereas we of course know that, under the alternative announcement, it would be impossible to put fibre out to a lot of farms and locations that are simply unable to access a service and would be unable to access a service if they were waiting for fibre to reach them.

I am really glad that Senator Polley has raised this matter, because today is an exciting day for regional and rural Australia. Far from being a second-class outcome, we have overcome what would be a second-class proposal from the Labor Party and we will now have a world-class network with a minimum speed of 12 megabits to 99 per cent of the Australian population.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That’s fantastic!

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

It is fantastic, Senator Abetz. WiMAX technology will be rolled out immediately. What is more important is that it will be available by the middle of 2009 to all Australians, whereas under Labor’s proposal you would not get it until 2013. You might, if you hang around long enough, be able to get it in some areas. This technology is capable of going at far greater speeds—up to at least 40 megabits per second—and it has a technology evolution upgrade. This government is very strongly committed to the proposition that all Australians, regardless of where they live, should not have to wait on the Labor Party and they should have access to high-speed broadband. We do not believe in picking technology winners, but we have allowed the industry to put forward the best mix of technologies to meet the varying needs of Australia’s vast terrain and scattered population.

It would be very brave person who said they knew all of the technological answers for Australia over the next five years. Just a couple of years ago, we know that the Labor Party’s only foray into the internet was a policy to mandate a dial-up rollout for $5 billion. The reality is that a mix of technologies will be the most effective means to deliver the services that Australia needs. The WiMAX broadband technology is more flexible than fixed line broadband in regional and rural areas. It is fourth generation wireless standard that provides high-speed broadband connections over long distances. The OPEL WiMAX network provides a network up to a radius of 20 kilometres from a base station and can be scaled to accommodate much higher speeds in future years. It is recognised by the OECD as particularly appropriate for regional broadband access. By adopting a mix of technologies, we are providing equitable access to all Australians, regardless of where they live, at a price they can afford because metro-comparable prices will now be available to rural and regional Australians—probably about the first fairness they are going to see in telecommunications regarding broadband for a very long time.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister aware that the Australian Local Government Association’s State of the regions report estimates that the failure to address inferior internet access could cost regions up to $2.7 billion in forgone production and 30,000 jobs in 2006 alone? Given this, how many jobs will be lost in rural and regional Australia over the next 20 years because of the minister’s failure to deliver first-class fibre broadband?

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

I think Senator Polley might content herself with something that was said about this by the NFF today. The NFF said:

The choice of Wimax wireless technology, supplementing the additional ADSL2+ technology, to deliver services ‘from the exchange to the farm’ is vitally important, but also provides the opportunity for scalable high speed broadband into the future.

The services, combined with other technologies … will deliver high speed broadband across the entire nation—including to farmers in the remotest parts of Australia.

I can appreciate that the Labor Party might not welcome this comprehensive proposal for Australia’s broadband needs, but it will be welcomed by those who need to have access to this service. It is an important policy announcement from this government which shows that it is right on the front foot when it comes to broadband and that it has delivered a comprehensive solution. (Time expired)

Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I firstly congratulate Minister Coonan for her great initiative in introducing high-speed broadband to Australia. My question is—

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

They don’t have anything!

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

Senator Conroy! Come to order!

Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

will the minister provide the Senate with further details of the government’s plan to provide universal access to broadband for all Australians regardless of where they live, and compare this to any other proposals?

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

I thank Senator Eggleston for the question. I do recognise his outstanding efforts as the Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Fast, affordable broadband access will become an immediate reality for all Australians thanks to an initiative that I announced with the Prime Minister early this morning in the country New South Wales town of Goulburn. Australia Connected is a world-first initiative that ensures all Australians will now have access to high-speed broadband at affordable metro-comparable prices. You have heard, over the last few weeks that we have been talking about this matter, that a one-size-fits-all technology option simply does not suit the whole of Australia. We need to look both here and overseas for the best, cutting-edge solutions to ensure equitable broadband access for all Australians. Using the best mix of technologies, the government is now ensuring that 99 per cent of Australians will have access to a minimum service of 12 megabits within two years—that is, by mid-2009—and that the service is unscaleable thereafter.

The centrepiece of Australia Connected is the immediate rollout of a new, independent, competitive, state-of-the-art national broadband network to be constructed by OPEL, a joint venture between Optus and Elders. OPEL has been awarded a total $958 million in funding from Broadband Connect and an additional funding allocation. The government will have met our commitment to ensure affordability and metro-comparable pricing for all Australians regardless of where they live, and—this is the important bit—retail prices for both the new WiMAX and ADSL2+ broadband services will range from $35 to $60 per month, depending on the speed selected by the consumer. We will also be establishing Broadband Now, a one-stop shop which will provide help and support for consumers to ensure that they get ready access to the best information to enable them to locate the broadband solution for their family, for the farm or for other business.

On any view, Australia Connected is a groundbreaking initiative which comes on the back of very hard policy work by the Howard government which has seen more than 4.3 million homes and small businesses connected to broadband across Australia. In parallel with the deployment of this new network, a new commercial fibre-optic network will be built via a competitive bids process and subsequent enabling legislation. There will be an expert task force to ensure an open and transparent process for assessment of bids to build a fibre-to-the-node network. My expectation is that this process will move forward expeditiously, and I expect the task force to hold its first meeting this week.

With two commercial proposals on the table to build a fibre network, there should be no delay in getting this underway and we will have a solution as soon as possible without wasting $5 billion of taxpayers’ money. Australians simply cannot wait until 2013 for fast broadband services under my plan, and they will not. The government remains firmly committed to investing taxpayers’ dollars where the market does not invest, and we will ensure that high-speed broadband will be available to all Australians regardless of where they live. That is not a claim that any other political party can make.

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

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I refer the minister to her claim on the AM program this morning that WiMAX is the broadband technology of choice around the world. Given that the minister has now backflipped on her opposition to picking technology winners, is she aware that wireless broadband performance declines with distance, bad weather, hilly geography and the number of people using the service at any one time? The OECD has found that many of the claims about WiMAX performance are:

… overly optimistic and rely on theoretical maximums rather than what users may be able to typically expect.

Given this, can the minister indicate what speeds the WiMAX network will actually deliver for Australians in rural and regional areas? Can the minister guarantee a minimum speed of 12 megabits for all users of the new WiMAX network?

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

I thank Senator Conroy for this question. Taking his questions in some sort of order, I too have seen some reports of the OECD, particularly the working party on telecommunications, which actually has a most favourable report on WiMAX. Its key finding says WiMAX:

… should allow for wireless data speeds of up to 40 Mbit/s over a distance of 10 kilometres using relatively inexpensive equipment. These same technologies could also offer faster data transfers to mobile devices than is possible over current third-generation mobile networks under certain conditions.

The report on WiMAX also concludes that WiMAX is a particularly suitable platform for regional broadband access and says:

WiMAX equipment could play a key role in providing long-range fixed-wireless connectivity in rural and remote areas as well as mobile connectivity over shorter distances.

I am very glad that Senator Conroy wants to hitch his wagon to the OECD’s opinion of WiMAX technology. Of course, in the Broadband Connect initiative that I announced this morning with the Prime Minister, together with a number of other measures which I will eventually be able to get to, it was very clear that rather than picking technologies we have a mix of technologies, including fibre, with over 15,000 kilometres of additional backhaul that is going to provide about a 30 per cent reduction in backhaul costs; the enabling of 426 ADSL exchanges that will immediately provide speeds of up to 20 megabits per second; and the wireless network, which is particularly suited to ensuring that you can actually take your laptop to the shed, if you happen to live on a farm, and be able to do something appropriate in running your business with the use of this technology.

I am also very pleased that Senator Conroy seems to suggest that this cutting-edge technology has not been adopted anywhere else. I remind Senator Conroy that in the United Kingdom, Urban Wimax, a London based operator, is selling up to 10-megabit symmetrical access to businesses and has plans to roll out across the UK; in Scandinavia, Danske Telecom in Denmark has approximately 10,000 WiMAX subscribers—the service beginning in large Danish cities, including Copenhagen; in the United States, the third-largest mobile company, Sprint, announced plans to deploy a WiMAX network to reach 100 million people by the end of 2008, covering the following large cities—Chicago, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, Washington DC, Austin, Dallas, Denver, Fort Worth, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and Seattle. WiMAX has been deployed in Africa and it has been deployed in Chile, where Telmex announced the commercial launch of its WiMAX network. It has been deployed in Europe, India and in China. So I stand by my claim that WiMAX technology is cutting-edge technology and the technology of choice of many comparable countries.

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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I note that the minister ducked the question I actually asked her and so I will repeat it. Can the minister indicate at what speeds the WiMAX network will actually deliver to Australians in rural and regional areas? Can the minister guarantee a minimum of 12 megabits for all users of the new WiMAX network? Minister, you cannot run and hide on this one—yes or no. Given the shortcomings of wireless broadband relative to fibre optics, why has the government chosen to allocate almost a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money to this technology? In light of the minister’s historical opposition to picking technology winners, why has she now decided to instead pick technology losers?

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

I prepared a very good chart, which Senator Abetz happened to have handy—and I can remember writing this myself. It shows that, if you compare the Labor fibre proposal to ours, fibre only has a four-kilometre radius from the exchange whereas with WiMAX you have a 20-kilometre radius from the base station. On speeds, Labor has promised no more than 12 megabits, whereas the government is saying that with our entire broadband solution we are looking at 12 to 50 megabits. We are looking at getting this underway immediately.

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Minchin, the Minister for Finance and Administration. Will the minister outline to the Senate how the government’s excellent new Australia Connected broadband package is being funded? Further, will the minister explain to the Senate the importance of the Communications Fund and the Future Fund in addressing Australia’s long-term economic challenges, and will the minister advise the Senate of any alternative policies?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ronaldson for his pertinent question. He is one of many coalition senators who are focused on ensuring all Australians have access to quality telecommunications wherever they live. I congratulate Senator Coonan on this morning’s announcement of the Australia Connected package. It is a great package that means 99 per cent of Australians will have access to fast broadband by June 2009. It is entirely appropriate that we use a mix of technologies in a country like Australia, with its spread of population and geography—something the Labor Party completely misunderstands. In reference to Senator Ronaldson’s question, we are funding our package in a very responsible way. Firstly, because we put the budget back into surplus and we have eliminated Labor’s deficits and their debt, we can afford to provide generous support for broadband in regional and rural Australia. That is why we want to keep delivering surpluses. Secondly, and I emphasise this, we are putting our taxpayers’ investment into the areas that need government subsidies—the regional areas where you can assess that there is some market failure.

But there is simply no need for government funding of this in the cities, because in these areas the private sector is keen to build a fibre network by itself without it being subsidised by the taxpayers. But, of course, that begs the question: if the private sector is willing to build a fibre network by itself, why is Labor so committed to spending nearly $5 billion of taxpayers’ money on a city-centric network? There is simply no need for what amounts to a re-nationalisation of Australian telecommunications as proposed by the Labor Party. To make it worse, the $5 billion that Labor wants to spend is going to come from a smash-and-grab raid on the Communications Fund and the Future Fund. They lecture us all the time about planning for the future; and that is what these very important funds are about. These funds are responsible long-term planning to ensure that we have the savings locked away to deal with future challenges. The Communications Fund is there to provide around $400 million every three years to keep improving regional telecommunications, but Labor want to grab that and spend it all in one go on their proposal, leaving not one cent for future investment in regional and rural Australia. The Future Fund is there to ensure we can properly fund the superannuation of our soldiers, our police and our public servants and to take the tax burden off future generations of taxpayers. Labor are going to raid both these funds, and it is completely irresponsible. We are determined to stop them, and that is why the Prime Minister announced this morning that we will legislate to lock the Communications Fund away. So, like the Future Fund, it will be illegal for Labor to raid these savings funds.

The issue of broadband does demonstrate the real differences between the coalition and the Labor Party. The Labor Party have not escaped the big government solutions that have existed in that party ever since the Whitlam years. They have got a Whitlam style government extravaganza approach to broadband. The Labor Party do not have the experience or the ability to put together a broadband policy to suit Australia’s needs. The Labor Party are not financially responsible enough to be able to fund broadband without raiding the funds we have put away for long-term savings. With our experience in office, this government, and Senator Coonan in particular, has put together this great plan that will deliver fast broadband within two years in the city and the bush at best value for money for taxpayers.

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

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Is the minister aware of an email sent by a member of her staff to her department asking for electorate maps to be made available for the recent cabinet discussion on today’s broadband announcement? Doesn’t the email direct public servants to urgently prepare media information kits for today’s announcement for 40 priority government held marginal seats? Doesn’t this show that the government’s broadband announcement is nothing more than a pre-election political stunt to shore up votes in marginal seats?

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

Order! The last time I noticed Senator Conroy was the shadow minister for communications. He has asked a question and the least you can do is keep quiet on my left and let’s hear the answer.

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

The information contained in the Broadband Connect package is available for all Australians. That is why we have just made a public announcement. The maps that are available across Australia have obviously been prepared by the department universally. Let me just explain this: when you are rolling out a broadband network you do have to know where it is going to go—

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You’ve had 11 years to get this right!

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Carr interjecting—

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

Order! Senator Carr and Senator Lundy come to order!

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

you do have to know where it is going to be installed and you do need to know what is already there. So certainly my department has worked for months and months on what the Broadband Connect package will deliver for all Australians, regardless of where they live, particularly those in rural and regional areas. A point that has absolutely no basis but seems to be a mantra of the Labor Party—but they are completely wrong about it—is that this is just some poll driven exercise. Unfortunately, the Labor Party have belled the cat on this. I actually went back and had a look at the records. The money for this initiative that we have announced today was in the portfolio budget estimates, the supplementary budget estimates, for September 2005. And Senator Conroy asked a question on notice about the government’s intention to roll out broadband policies right across Australia in October 2005. Then last year, in 2006, I announced, together with the Deputy Prime Minister, the holding of the competitive grants process that was open to everybody, open to all Australians. In all of this process the prospect that we would not know where the technology was required, where there were underserved areas, is just absolutely fanciful. The proposal that we have now will cover an additional nine million residences and another three million residences by ADLS2+. That is not specific to any particular spot.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So why’d you only prepare 40?

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

Order! Senator Evans, shouting is disorderly!

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

It is by reference to underserved areas. That is entirely what the Broadband Connect new national network is about: serving underserved areas and investing government money where the market will not invest. I can understand that the Labor Party, who most certainly are poll driven, who thought of broadband as a sound grab rather than as any developed policy, do not like the fact that this government has been working on broadband now for years. Since 2004 we have already connected over four million premises to broadband, 1.3 million of those being in underserved areas. So I absolutely reject the notion that this was done for any particular electorate reason. It was done because we know that broadband is important to all Australians. And I plead guilty to knowing where this broadband network will be rolled out: it will be rolled out to nine million premises in underserved areas.

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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I again refer to the leaked email from Senator Coonan’s own office, where it lists the government’s 40 priority electorates. Doesn’t this email prove your broadband announcement is a pre-election political bandaid for the government’s most marginal seats and doesn’t it explicitly list Kingston, Stirling, Bonner, Macquarie, Bass, Deakin, Solomon, Wakefield, Makin, Hasluck, Moreton, Blair, Lindsay, Eden-Monaro, Page, Dobell, Braddon, McMillan and others? Don’t Australians have every right to be cynical about a government that only acts on broadband in an election year and then tries to dress up the benefits in marginal seats only?

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

I stand by my former answer. The Labor Party are really getting paranoid with their conspiracy theories. The suggestion, for example, that companies—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

Order! Senators on my left! You are continually interjecting during question time and I ask you to come to order.

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

I know that this government’s comprehensive plan for broadband really gives the jump to Labor with their rhetoric on broadband. All they can think of is to throw ‘broadband’ into every statement simply because Labor have no idea how the market works, have absolutely no idea of how you could economically provide a solution right across Australia. But the suggestion that, inferentially, companies of the standard of Optus and Elders would be involved in any conspiracy is, quite frankly, completely offensive. I know that the Labor Party did not have the wit to work out how to cover 99 per cent of the population. We do and we will not be going back on providing broadband for all Australians. (Time expired)