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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

The telecommunications competitive safeguards report for 2006-07 highlights on page 1 the state of competition in Australia, where it talks about telecommunications competition around the country. I want to speak about the lack of competition in Tasmania, particularly with respect to the access to broadband services. I would like to put the Premier of Tasmania on notice and ask him why his government has sat on their hands on the Basslink fibre-optic cable issue since 2004. The taxpayers of Tasmania have been spending approximately $2 million a year—the latest report put it at $2.1 million a year—for no benefit.

In fact, the cable has not been lit. It has been there on the bottom of Bass Strait amongst the sand and the coral and has been of no benefit to internet broadband users in Tasmania. It was completed in 2004. It contained a fibre-optic link cable, increasing Tasmania’s broadband capacity and indeed competition. The cable has lain dormant since then, as the Tasmanian government has been unable to come to an agreement with the owners of the Basslink cable. The new owners are CitySpring. I will come to them very shortly.

In terms of Tasmania and competition, we need a second wholesaler providing broadband to the state to provide competition and a better outcome for Tasmanian consumers. Premier Bartlett needs to ensure that the Basslink fibre-optic cable is commercialised and lit as soon as possible, rather than lying dormant. Until he does, all his talk about making Tasmania ‘clever and connected’ is just talk—that is all it is; there is no meat on the bones.

I note that Premier Bartlett is quoted in today’s Mercury. He made a big speech last night about the importance of innovation for Tasmania. He said, ‘An innovation strategy has been commissioned by the state government as the cornerstone of a plan to drive economic growth for the next 10 years.’ This is highlighted on page 11 of today’s Mercury under the headline ‘Bartlett activates plan for growth’. He is quoted in there as saying ‘a comprehensive innovation strategy is crucial to help underpin our growth for the next 10 years’. What is he doing about this particular dormant cable, for which taxpayers are paying over $2 million a year and have been doing so since 2004?

In today’s Examiner newspaper, on page 4, Ellena Midgley has written a very good story about CitySpring, ‘CitySpring “on notice” over cable’. The Treasurer of the state government is in negotiations with CitySpring. But this has been going of for weeks and months. The cable has been dormant since 2004, and we have been paying $2 million a year. It is a scandal and it needs to be sorted out. The state government in Tasmania needs to come clean with the public. This particular report in the Examiner says:

The 290km cable, which runs from George Town to Victoria, does not carry any Internet traffic.

That is correct. It is a dormant cable. It has not been lit. The article says:

“The Tasmanian taxpayer is locked in to paying approximately $2.1 million a year to CitySpring for no benefit.

That is exactly right. So let us have an inquiry; let us find out exactly what is going on. Can the state government come clean and say exactly what is happening with respect to the future of that cable? Will we continue to pay $2 million a year for a dormant cable with no benefit for Tasmanian taxpayers? How do they explain this inaction and dilatory behaviour, this sitting on their hands? Is Premier Bartlett clever and connected, or is it all just words? Perhaps it is the latter; but, if it is, he should come clean and explain that to the Tasmanian public.

Question agreed to.