Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy. Can the minister advise the Senate on how the National Broadband Network is being received in regional Australia?

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

I thank the senator for his question and for his ongoing interest in the NBN and regional Australia. By this week more than 30,000 premises should have already connected to the NBN. Over 87 per cent of those are in regional Australia and, so far, the highest take-up of fibre services has been in Kiama where 44 per cent of the premises passed have an active NBN connection.

Can I congratulate the good senator Senator Bernardi on gaining the No. 1 Senate ticket. Perhaps we will all now have a quieter time in the chamber. But I do not think so.

Last week Business Review Weekly profiled Kiama and its embrace of the NBN. The article quotes Kevin Bogie, a contractor for Spectrum Art Glass in Sydney. He has found a huge difference through using the NBN. Previously, he found it a struggle to send and receive large files, such as artwork. Here is what he had to say:

It’s pretty much halved my trips to Sydney for that sort of work.

With regard to his saving on the connection, he went on:

My new plan is 100 times bigger for half the price and I think it has to be at least 10 or 15 times faster.

The owner of home business Hartgerink Media Services, Nick Hartgerink, has also benefited from the NBN. He says that the NBN makes it significantly faster to send and receive files. He told the BRW:

… our fixed-line phone bills have dropped dramatically from well over $100 a month to around $10 a month …

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister provide information on other businesses in Kiama which will benefit from the NBN?

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

Local real estate agent Dougmal Harcourts is preparing for the availability of the NBN to her premises in February and licensee Susan Spence told the BRW:

We don’t even have window cards any more and that’s because we don’t sell property from a window any more; people buy houses from their own homes and online listings are very important.

The company estimates that driving to Sydney wastes the equivalent of 30 business days a year. The business is preparing to use videoconferencing, once connected, and is planning for the nine employees to attend most of their training in this way. This is just another example of how the NBN is beginning to radically change the way that business is done in Australia.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I have a further supplementary question. Can the minister advise how people in regional Australia who do not use the internet will benefit from the NBN?

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

Voice-only services are now available over the NBN. Last week, launching their fibre phone on the NBN service, Internode said:

From the customer's perspective it's exactly the same as a regular landline. They just plug in their existing phone handset and start to make calls.

This service has a monthly rental of $29.95, less than the $33.95 for Telstra's HomeLine Plus. More significantly, the Internode plan charges 18c for untimed calls to any standard fixed line phone in Australia. Using a standard telephone, voice-only customers on the NBN can say goodbye to STD charges forever. Anyone genuinely concerned about regional Australia should be backing the Gillard government's NBN. Those in that corner down there should hang their heads. You are a disgrace when it comes to representing regional Australia. (Time expired)

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy. Is the minister aware that NBN Co. has named the sites of two proposed fixed wireless towers for Ballarat City Council and regional Victoria in the local communities of Mount Helen and Buninyong? Given that residents are very concerned about the location of the towers, particularly given their claim that they have received no consultation about the siting decision from NBN Co., how does this accord with the minister's undertaking in Senator Cameron's Senate estimates committee:

We are not going to force towers on the community.

Can the minister confirm that NBN Co. consulted with the communities of Mount Helen and Buninyong and, if so, how comprehensive was that consultation?

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

I thank those opposite for my third question in 12 months on the National Broadband Network. I have had more questions from those opposite on cuddly koalas, saving fish and Tasmanian forests than I have had on the National Broadband Network. Those opposite know that they are letting down Australians in regional Australia—

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. I am not sure how many questions Senator Conroy gets in question time in the Senate that actually relate to Mount Helen's consultation process around the NBN.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Conroy, you have one minute 30 seconds. You need to address the question.

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

Those opposite want to ignore examples like I have just been talking about in Kiama. They want to ignore the fact that services are starting to be provided on the fixed wireless network—the towers that I am being asked about. We had the Geraldton customer, who said, 'I'm getting a better service at a much cheaper rate.' NBN Co. has estimated that it requires approximately 2,300 wireless sites to roll out its fixed wireless broadband network.

Roughly half of these 2,300 sites will consist of new towers and the other half will consist of transmitters co-located on existing structures such as existing mobile phone towers. Ultimately, the exact number of wireless sites will depend on the number and the kinds of sites that NBN Co. is able to acquire and the number of existing facilities that will be available to NBN Co.

As required by Victorian planning laws, development applications have been lodged for new telecommunications towers with local councils in the Ballarat region. These new towers will be used to deliver, as I said, the next generation of fixed wireless broadband over the NBN to rural areas that are outside the NBN's fibre footprints. For those opposite, could I point out to them that their policy in regional Victoria— (Time expired)

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I have a supplementary question. Does the minister concede that this is not simply an issue of tower siting but a method of broadband delivery and community consultation? Local Ballarat resident Mr Cartledge is quoted as saying:

The consensus from day one is that we've never been against the technology but rather the process and dictatorship from Canberra.

How can communities have confidence in this government and the NBN Co. that there will be genuine consultation on the rollout of the National Broadband Network?

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

I think there is some very selective quoting going on. If you look at those Ballarat region who have objected in the to mobile phone towers and NBN towers I think you will find a strong thread of people who are opposed to any mobile phone tower, whether it is being built for the NBN or anything else. And they are going to be opposed to your plan to put thousands and thousands of towers across regional Victoria, across regional Ballarat. They are going to be just as opposed to your towers as they are to our towers because they actually oppose every tower.

Senator Madigan is well aware of some of the people I am talking about—he has been in consultation. Even Senator Madigan does not agree with the position of no mobile phone towers anywhere—I do not think I have misrepresented you there, Senator Madigan. Let us be clear: there are those who are walking around the country saying, 'We've got to get better mobile phone coverage, we need more towers.' What you have got in that corner— (Time expired)

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for not answering the question, Minister. Mr President, I have a further supplementary question. Given that earlier this month NBN Co. visited the Latrobe Valley to unveil potential sites for the installation of 40-metre monotowers, can the minister outline the process of consultation undertaken with the communities in the Latrobe Valley regarding the siting of the towers and how the apparent strategy used in the Latrobe Valley will be one the NBN Co. plans to use across regional Australia? I am talking specifically about the process of consultation, Minister.

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

We comply with all Victorian planning laws. We cannot just turn up and put up a tower. I did read the article in the Latrobe Valley Express where a particular gentleman was very, very unhappy about the siting of a tower because it was not on his property. He wanted the rental. He was very unhappy that it was actually on an adjoining property in a place where he believed it cast doubt on his amenity, but he said he had been in discussions with NBN and it had come as a great shock to him that it was not on his property. So I have seen the article.

Those opposite are running this bogus campaign around the country: 'We'll give you better mobile phone coverage, we're just not going to do it by building any towers.' It is going to be magic! We have got them on the one hand wanting to fan community concern about towers and the siting of towers, but they want to promise them better mobile phone coverage. Those opposite are complete frauds when it comes to this issue. Your policy— (Time expired)