Fiona Nash (NSW, National 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 please outline to the Senate any plans to extend broadband access for rural and regional Australians. Is the minister aware of any threats to the future of telecommunications services in rural and regional Australia? Further, what action is the government taking to protect the future of these essential services?

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

I certainly thank Senator Nash for her question and for her continued strong advocacy and interest in ensuring that rural and regional Australians enjoy equity in telecommunications services. I am very happy to inform the Senate that we are now one step closer to flicking the fast broadband switch and welcoming the advent of a new world-class network for all Australians regardless of where they live.

Last week the funding agreement for a new national high-speed broadband network was signed with OPEL Networks, a joint venture between rural group Elders and Optus. The agreement captures all the commitments announced on 18 June 2007 and provides the foundation for a new $1.9 billion competitive broadband network that will extend high-speed broadband out to 99 per cent of the population at metro-comparable prices. OPEL will provide 12 megabits per second broadband services to thousands of rural and regional communities over the 1,361 wireless broadband WiMAX sites. Even faster speeds of up to 20 megabits will be available from the more than 420 ADSL2+ exchanges.

High-speed broadband is essential to overcome the isolation that many people feel in rural and regional Australia. The OPEL Networks will open up opportunities for rural businesses to reach new customers, to buy and sell equipment online and to access the latest information. OPEL has already commenced work on establishing its new scalable, state-of-the art WiMAX, ADSL2+ and fibre wholesale network that is targeted for completion by 2009.

I have been asked about threats to the future of telecommunication services in rural and regional Australia. Unfortunately I have to report to the Senate that I am aware of a very big threat to the future of these services. That is the threat posed by the election of a Rudd Labor government. A Rudd Labor government has only one vague idea for broadband in Australia. It will leave 25 per cent of Australians stranded. It is an uncosted, untested and undeliverable plan that will simply leave many Australians out in the cold, as Senator Nash well knows. Worse still, $2 billion of its flimsy proposal is proposed to be funded by draining the Communications Fund that has been established specifically to protect the most needy Australians and the future of telco services in those areas.

There is no better example than the threat which a Labor government poses to regional and rural Australians and no better example than the fact that Labor simply does not understand the market. Labor would take money from where it is genuinely needed and pour it into a commercial network. Talk about failing basic economics 101. Now that the government has preserved this guaranteed funding, there is now of course a $2 billion hole in Labor’s flimsy plan to roll out broadband. The difference between the government and Labor could hardly be more stark. In contrast to the Labor Party’s neglect of rural and regional Australians, this government will continue its commitment to rural and regional Australians and will continue to deliver good services to them, regardless of where they live.