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

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

What we have now heard from Senator Coonan is a backflip of ginormous proportions. But what is more concerning is the complete lack of understanding by Senator Coonan about what the technology is and how it will be utilised. It has been exposed today, because, when you look at the issues, the Howard government has had to catch up with where Labor is on fast broadband.

I was going to consider Senator Coonan and the Liberal coalition government Luddites, but that would be in fact too great a statement to make, because it would mean someone who has made a conscious decision to reject technology. What we have is a minister incapable of explaining the technology—that is, WiMAX technology. There are huge question marks about how that OPEL group technology will be utilised and how the network will come together and be utilised by Australians. We have a government that will not be able to deliver the strategy that they are promising, let alone be capable of explaining the strategy. The simple argument is that the government have picked a loser. They have picked a standard that is 802.16d, or ‘dead’. Instead, WiMAX, the technology where most people understand the Intel chip set will be going, is 802.16e—a different standard. The government has also bought a frequency out of the spectrum of 5.8 gigahertz. WiMAX is in the lower end—the 3.5 end—of the gigahertz scale. What we have is a Clayton’s WiMAX being proposed—a standard that is not going to deliver into the future. We already have Intel chip manufacturers ramping up to make 802.16e chip sets, where WiMAX is going to be.

The government has not been able to manage spectrum in this instance. Why? Because it has had to rush out a policy to try to catch up to Labor’s policy position. This government has done a cynical backflip. Its arrogance is breathtaking. The losers from the policy of the Liberal and National parties to introduce a two-tiered system of fast broadband will be rural and regional Australia. If you live in the metropolitan cities, you are in luck. The Liberal and National parties will ensure that you will have true broadband, but if you are one of the millions of Australians who live in an outer metropolitan region—guess what?—you will be stuck with this second-rate system.

My office is located halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, in Beenleigh. It is close to Eagleby, Beaudesert and some suburbs of Logan City. If the government is so confident that fast broadband will provide small business innovation to people in this region, tell us today. Put your foot on the sticky paper and make it clear to the Australian people who live in that region that they will get fast broadband, they will be able to maintain thriving businesses based on internet fast speeds and they will be able to compete with metropolitan areas because they will be assured of fast broadband in those areas.

The government has been mean and tricky on exactly how fast the broadband access will be. Senator Coonan started talking about it today. I congratulate her on saying that it will be up to 12 megabits, but then she slipped back into the old routine of saying that it will be 12 megabits. The government has to say what speed people in the outer metropolitan and rural and regional areas of Australia will receive. Will it be 12 megabits, up to 12 megabits or significantly less than that? (Time expired)

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

What an absolute load of rubbish we are hearing from the other side about broadband. It is continuous and it is also hypocritical. The senator from the other side just made the point that rural and regional areas were going to be the losers in this. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the opposition know it. It is interesting to see that Senator Conroy has completely run out of puff on this issue and has not even bothered to stay in the chamber for this debate. If he thinks it is so important, he should have been here—but, oh no, he has run off.

The reason the Labor Party are wrong about this issue is that we are going to deliver fast broadband right around the country. Let us have a little look at what Labor’s plan actually is on rolling out broadband. Interestingly, it is fibre-to-the-node technology, so it will not get out to rural and regional areas. Yet Labor want to steal the $2 billion that is in the Communications Fund for rural and regional communities to have telecommunications services in the bush. That is $130 million every year that Labor want to take away from the country and give to the cities and, as far as I am concerned, that is not on.

We hear a lot of technology talk in this debate, but it goes out into the ether because all people really want is a decent service. When we talk about fibre to the node, it is exactly that: fibre to the node. Fibre to the node is not to the home or to anywhere else; it only goes to the node. Once you get to the node, the reasonable service goes for only about a kilometre. I live out in the central west of New South Wales, and the last time I looked there were not too many nodes around and there were an awful lot of people living further than one kilometre from a node. We will now have to call Senator Conroy ‘no nodes Noddy’ because he obviously has no idea what is going on out in the regions.

It is despicable that those who sit on the other side of this chamber tell us that we are going to do a bad job when they have no plan. It has been 91 days, I think, since Labor put out their press release—one press release—on their plan for broadband. What is in it? Not very much. Have they said anything since? No. All they are being is negative about this government’s very good plan for broadband around Australia. They have got nothing. It is reflective of many of their policies that they throw out a glib line, a bit of an idea, and then run on to the next thing. There is no substance to their claims. There is nothing substantive about them. The Labor Party do not back up their claims and comments—and this issue is a perfect example of that. They talk about fibre to the node getting out to 98 per cent of the landmass. That is rubbish, because it will be lucky to get to 75 per cent. Even if it were true, that two per cent of the landmass is an awfully big part of this country. Guess who lives in that area? Rural and regional people. They are not going to get it under Labor’s plan. It would be very helpful if Labor decided to say how they were planning to get broadband out to rural and regional communities—but they have absolutely nothing.

The people with whom I have been talking since we announced this policy to roll out WiMAX into the regions are very happy. They have been saying for some time that they want a better service and that they want their children to be able to access better internet services. We are going to give that to them. Businesses are saying that they want better internet services, and we are going to give that to them. Those children, those businesses and those families—everybody—living in rural and regional communities will get better broadband access. There is no doubt about that. There is no way you can argue against it. We are doing that. The ALP and its leader, Kevin Rudd—who obviously has no idea about broadband in the bush—have nothing. They have no plan, not a thing, nothing. They have no plan, but if they do have one for rural and regional Australia they will not even tell us what it is. Senator Conroy ducks and weaves and rabbits on about goodness knows blah blah blah, but he has not come up with a plan of any substance on what they will do in the regions.

I noticed the other day that Joel Fitzgibbon, a Labor MP, was talking about not being able to get broadband into the Hunter under their plan. I understand, too, that the member for Lingiari said:

... in the case of the Northern Territory we would say all the major urban centres would have access to fibre and the remainder of the Northern Territory would have the next best technology, which would provide the best equivalent level of service that we can possibly make available.

The interviewer asked:

Which would have to be wireless, I presume, would it?

Warren Snowdon replied:

Wireless in some form, yes.

(Time expired)

John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind people that, when participating in debates in this place, they should refer to people in the other place by their correct title and not in a personal way.

Linda Kirk (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given by Senator Coonan to questions asked of her this afternoon in question time. After having stubbornly denied broadband was a problem for the last two years, in the shadow of an election we see the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, backflipping. Just like its response to climate change, the Howard government’s response to broadband is simply too little, too late. The Prime Minister has to answer a simple question: why does the Prime Minister believe that it is okay for the city to have access to fibre broadband whilst at the same time it makes rural and regional Australia make do with a patchwork of lesser technologies? That is the fundamental question that the Prime Minister needs to answer.

If the wireless technologies the government is fobbing off onto rural and regional Australia are as good as fibre, Mr Howard should commit to using these technologies exclusively in his own office. Australians deserve better than the two-tier broadband system that is being promoted by this government. We in the ALP believe that rural and regional Australia deserves access to the same infrastructure as that which is provided in the city.

In taking note of answers, Senator Ludwig was talking earlier about the nature of the WiMAX technology, and I want to refer in my remarks here today to some of the information that has emerged in relation to that technology. We know that the Howard government have said that, in order to reach what they claim to be 99 per cent of Australians with their $900 million, they will rely on wireless broadband technology—either 3G or WiMAX. But we heard today that even the minister admitted that existing wireless technology simply will not be able to deliver 12 megabits of broadband speed. Wireless broadband, including satellite, WiMAX and 3G, suffers from a range of technical problems, such as performance declining with distance, bad weather, hilly geography and the number of people using the service at any one time—that is, congestion.

The cost-effectiveness of WiMAX against fixed-line broadband is also questionable. A recent OECD report, The implications of WiMAX for competition and regulation,found a number of things in relation to this technology. I will just mention a few of these in the time that I have available. The report found:

Despite all the excitement over Wimax, the ultimate role of Wimax in the wireless market is debatable.

It also found that many predictions and comments about WiMAX in the press may be overly optimistic and tend to rely on theoretical maximums rather than what users may typically be able to expect. So even the OECD has significant concerns about the effectiveness of this technology.

How is Labor’s position different from that being proposed by the government? Labor’s plan for a national broadband network is a long-term investment in the nation’s future. What the Prime Minister is proposing is simply an election year bandaid. The government intends to create two classes of broadband service in Australia: one for the five mainland capital cities and another for the rest of the nation. As I said, Australians in metropolitan areas will get access to a world-class fibre-to-the-node network, while the rest of the country will have to make do with an as yet unspecified mix of technologies.

In contrast, our plan for a fibre-to-the-node national broadband network delivers true broadband speeds to 98 per cent of Australian homes and businesses. This is a truly national plan that will bring world-class infrastructure to almost all Australians. If the wireless technologies that the government is fobbing off onto rural and regional Australians are as good as fibre, the Prime Minister should, as I said, put his money where his mouth is and use these technologies exclusively in his own office. When the Prime Minister commits to that then perhaps we might believe that he really does believe that the quality of this technology is good enough to be thrust upon rural and regional Australia.

Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand to take note of the answers to the questions given by ministers on this side of the chamber, specifically, Senator Helen Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I want to follow through and support the comments of my fellow senator, Senator Nash. I will start where she concluded. She quoted Warren Snowdon, the member for Lingiari, who conceded, in an interview with Territory FM only yesterday, that, yes, they would have to use wireless to access rural and regional parts of the Northern Territory. That makes it very clear that there has been a concession by Labor MPs that wireless is to be used.

Under the Labor plan—which, as was indicated by Minister Coonan earlier today, is really a media release of some 90 days ago—they will reach only 75 per cent of the Australian population. They realise, in the statements made in the media release, that under their proposal they will simply do two things. Firstly, they will rob the communications fund of $2 billion.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Shameful!

Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is right, Senator Parry; it is shameful that they are going to do that. Secondly, they have no solution to getting this communication regime to rural and regional Australia. Under our plan we have a $1.8 billion state-of-the-art independent network that will extend the high-speed broadband to 99 per cent of the population by 2009. Sadly, in accordance with the statements issued in their media release of about 90 days ago, Labor’s plan will simply get to 75 per cent of the population, at best.

Those are the first points I want to make up front, but I want to refer to the allegations made by Labor about Telstra. They referred to the Telstra sacking of employees in Launceston. This is an issue and a concern that Michael Ferguson, the federal member for Bass, has taken up. He has received the strong support of the Tasmanian Liberal Senate team. In fact, Michael discussed it with the Senate team just last week. We had a special meeting to talk about these particular matters. We oppose this decision by Telstra. We are dreadfully disappointed and upset. We think it is a bad decision that Telstra has made, and those views have been expressed to Telstra.

They on the other side say it is because Telstra has been privatised. Telstra was corporatised under Labor. It was the former Labor government that said, ‘Let us corporatise Telstra so that it can be independent and there will be no political interference.’ That is the way it should be. Telstra has acted and operated in that way since. This is a decision by Telstra and it is a decision that we oppose.

Michael Ferguson, the federal member for Bass, has taken this on board. He cares for the 257 Tasmanians that are at risk of losing their employment, and he has taken it up with Telstra. He wrote to the Chief Executive Officer of Telstra to tell him that he was wrong and had made a bad decision and he asked him to reconsider. He did this rather than politicise the issue, as did federal Labor senators and state Labor MPs in Launceston, for pure political gain. He made representations to Telstra. He made representations to the state Premier to ask him to be part of a working group to work cooperatively—federal and state—to try to help the employees in Launceston. The state Labor Premier said no, no doubt prompted by federal Labor senators.

Nevertheless, the local business community has said that it will get on board. The local mayor, Ivan Dean MLC, said that he would come on board. They have had some meetings, and I understand that there is a further meeting tomorrow, where they will discuss the options and work out exactly what they can do to assist and support those working men and women in Launceston and their families.

The Labor Party would prefer to get involved in political shenanigans, but Michael Ferguson, the federal member for Bass, has taken a positive approach, and I believe there is hope for the future. With Michael’s support and the Liberal senators’ support, we can make a difference for those people. (Time expired)

Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers to various questions to Senator Coonan on the issue of broadband technology. As a senator from Western Australia, I need to place on the record at the outset my concerns over the current government’s plans for what has been described as a new, high-speed broadband network. As well as delivering a second-rate service to rural Australia, it will provide an inferior service to the booming suburbs on the fringes of the city of Perth. Why do I say that? Because this government intends to deliver only wireless broadband to these new, growing, developing, vibrant suburbs. Wireless broadband is slower than and inferior to the high-tech, fibre-to-the-node service that the Australian Labor Party will offer in due course. The government’s broadband network is earmarked only for cities.

After having stubbornly denied for the last two years that broadband was a problem, the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, has back-flipped with his $900 million deal. He is fobbing off rural and regional Australia—which covers vast tracts of Western Australia, including suburban Perth—with this old-fashioned, dated, slower wireless technology. If this wireless technology which the government is fobbing off on rural and regional Australia is as good as fibre then, as Senator Kirk said, the Prime Minister should be up front and commit to using these technologies exclusively in his own office and indeed in this parliament. Why does the Prime Minister believe that it is okay for the city to have access to fibre broadband, whilst making rural and regional Australia make do with a patchwork quilt of dated, lesser and older technologies? Western Australians—the people whom I represent—not only deserve better; they need better and they want better so they can actively participate in a growing, vibrant economy.

Labor’s plan for a national broadband network is a long-term investment in our nation’s future. We have promised—and we continue to promise—fibre-to-the-node broadband for 98 per cent of Australians. It is the only truly national plan that is going to bring world-class infrastructure to almost all Australians. This broadband issue shows that, whilst the Prime Minister has his sights set solely on the next election, Labor have a great vision for Australia.

The Prime Minister’s measures are bandaids in the lead-up to the next election. Even his communications minister, Senator Coonan, could not explain and sell the idea this week. That is because she is unaware of the consequences and the fine print of her own deal, as are most Australians. Senator Coonan wrongly said the government would deliver broadband to all Australians at the same speed—12 megabits per second. Even God could not deliver 12 megabits by satellite! In reality, wireless simply cannot deliver those broadband speeds. As Senator Kirk outlined, it also suffers from a range of technical problems which have not yet been solved. It is affected by bad weather, hilly geography and congestion on the lines. None of these problems, for which we have not got solutions, were mentioned in any way by Senator Coonan. This is because it is a government that has run out of ideas. The best it can do is to try and copy, run behind and follow on Labor’s ideas for a national broadband system.

The Australian people want guidance and leadership from their politicians, not simple, back-of-the-envelope calculations that seek to copy what has already been announced by a major political party. That is why Labor led the charge on broadband with its own policy. Labor believes it makes more sense to extend the reach of a national fibre-to-the-node network rather than subsidise old, dated, technologies that will not deliver the speed that is required. This will provide the best service for all Australians. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.