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

My question is to the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Coonan. It is a decade since the Howard government spearheaded reforms to the telecommunications sector. I ask the minister to outline to the Senate how these landmark competition reforms have increased investment in the telecommunications industry and are delivering real benefits to consumers throughout Australia.

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 such a thoughtful question on communications. Ten years ago the Howard government took on the challenge of reforming Australia’s telecommunications sector, thereby opening it up to full and robust competition. The intention in tackling this reform agenda was to improve the quality and the price of services for all consumers, regardless of where they live. Under the previous Labor government, telecommunications, like other industry sectors, had simply failed to keep pace with the world economy. As a result, the industry and, critically, Australian consumers suffered because of Labor’s policy paralysis in this area.

After 10 years of competition reform by this government, consumers are now the real winners, I am happy to say, with prices falling on average by over 26 per cent and prices for mobiles falling by well over a third—by a whopping 36 per cent. The Australian government’s Australia Connected package will see OPEL, a joint venture between Optus and Elders, roll out a new high-speed broadband network, using a mix of technologies, to 99 per cent of all Australians at affordable prices. It will reach people on farms and in locations where, despite proximity to an exchange, they have simply been unable to get a fast internet service.

I also understand that the expert task force will shortly release the draft guidelines for competitive bids for the new high-speed broadband network in capital cities and major regional centres. If the media reports and analysts are to be believed, Australia is also about to benefit from a significant upgrade to Telstra’s hybrid fibre-coaxial, HFC, cable network. Speeds in the order of 30 and even 50 megabits have been bandied about over the last couple of days and, if these reports are well founded, this upgrade will be another great result for consumers. However, most importantly, this rumoured investment will be driven by commercial interests without regulatory wind-back or taxpayer funding.

The government settings for industry stand in very stark contrast to the Labor Party. Labor has moved from mandating dial-up to hiding under Telstra’s skirts and adopting holus-bolus an old broadband plan that even Telstra has stepped away from. This shows that Labor has not done the hard policy yards and is afraid of scrutiny, while calling for it from the government. Labor’s so-called broadband plan rests on nothing more than a flimsy press release—I think we all need to be clear about that—so it was interesting to hear Mr Rudd’s response to Fran Kelly on Radio National’s Breakfast on Monday, in an interview about whether he would declare his position on Tasmania’s Mersey hospital, in which he said he needed ‘a comprehensive piece of paper’ explaining the model and how it is to be constructed, organised and delivered. Here is the kicker: he said he will not respond to a government press release with no detail attached. That is the same old Labor: ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’

Labor is going to try and slide out of any scrutiny until election day, with no transparent costing of a $5 billion raid on the taxpayer. This government has a genuine plan that can stand up to scrutiny and that is going to deliver immediate results, not in five years time.