Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Don’t give up your day job, Nick. My question is to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy. Can the minister assure the Senate that the government will keep its key election promise to commence construction of its national broadband network by the end of this year?

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

Thank you for that question. It is my first from Senator Ronaldson on my portfolio. As part of our election commitment to boost Australia’s productivity, the Rudd government have indicated that we will commit up to $4.7 billion and will consider regulatory changes to facilitate the rollout of a national broadband network. This will be the biggest national investment in broadband infrastructure ever made by an Australian government. It demonstrates our commitment to investing in infrastructure that is vital for Australia’s long-term prosperity.

The government are moving quickly to fulfil our election commitments. On 11 April the government released the formal request for proposals, which is publicly available for parties interested in the national broadband process. The RFP sets out the Commonwealth’s 18 objectives for this project and the framework under which the proposals will be evaluated. Amongst other things, the objectives clearly state that the national broadband network should cover 98 per cent of homes and businesses, offer minimum download speeds of 12 megabits to each end user and use a fibre based network. The timetable provided in the RFP is indicative, and it states that quite clearly.

The government stand by the announcement I made on 22 May that proponents will have 12 weeks to consider network information required to lodge submissions from the date that the last information is made available. We are engaging actively with carriers to ensure that the network information is made available as soon as possible. Unlike the former government, we have made it very clear that we recognise that proponents will need access to relevant network information to prepare national broadband network proposals on an equal footing. This is unlike the proposal from those opposite, where there was no expert panel considering the information and no information was sought from the telco providers. They were just told to bowl up a proposal to the former government’s broadband plan. So let us be clear about this: we are going through this systematically and methodically. It is very important to the RFP process that proponents get access to the right information.

We are in the middle of a live competitive process now, and proceeding as quickly as possible. It is of critical importance that integrity and confidentiality are maintained to ensure the NBN process delivers the best possible outcome for Australia. It is not appropriate that the government conduct a running commentary on a live commercial process, and, as such, I will not be commenting further on this matter.

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. In light of Mr Rudd’s broken promise and the abject failure of the minister to answer the question, I ask: what is the government’s exact timetable for delivering on its broadband election commitment? Isn’t this just broadband in the never-never as it was described in the Age last week?

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

Given that the opposition—the then government—had 18 failed broadband plans, it is a bit rich for you, or any of your colleagues, to be coming in here and talking about Australia’s broadband performance in the never-never. We are so far down the international rankings that we are a joke. People who visit this country from overseas think that our broadband performance is embarrassing. This was all presided over by those opposite, because they just did not understand the revolution that is taking place around the rest of the world—the revolution in the way that we will be educating our young, the revolution in the way we will be gathering information, and the revolution in the way that we will be teaching. Let’s be clear about this: being lectured by the opposition about broadband in the never-never when after 11½ years they had 18 failed plans is just a little rich. (Time expired)