Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications and Minister for the Arts, Senator Fifield. Will the minister update the Senate on the coalition's plan to use a mix of technologies, including the hybrid fibre coaxial networks, which currently pass almost four million Australian premises, to complete the NBN sooner and at the least cost taxpayers?

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Reynolds for her question and her interest in rolling out the NBN sooner and at less cost to taxpayers. I do first have to address the fool's gold that Mr Clare in the other place and Senator Conroy were peddling yesterday and getting extremely excited about. The document which became available yesterday was representing the sort of planning that commercial organisations do, the sort of war-gaming that they do and the sort of scenario testing that they do, which is entirely appropriate for an organisation. They do this to look at worst-case scenarios, best-case scenarios and those in between. That is what that document represented.

HFC technology is actually something that Labor were not prepared to mention previously. It was a phraseology, a terminology, which they steered clear from, and the reason for that is that Labor wrote billion-dollar cheques on behalf of taxpayers to switch off the HFC networks. The coalition did not have to spend any extra money to get these assets, which pass almost four million households and businesses in Australia's six biggest cities. As you know, Mr President, these networks already supply pay TV to many homes in the nation. I think only those opposite, really, could come up with the sort of genius and brilliance that would see billions of dollars spent to shut down networks only to then have to spend billions more overbuilding them. What we thought was entirely reasonable was, for no extra money, to make sure we had these networks available to us. (Time expired)

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Will the minister also inform the Senate what other countries are doing to make the most of their HFC assets?

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before Senator Conroy embarked on his fibre-only fantasy, he failed to look around the world at what the broadband trends were. He completely ignored the cost savings that were available from appropriately using existing infrastructure. They missed the tech trend for data over cable. They completely ignored the US, the world's biggest cable broadband market, which boasts more than 50 million subscribers and a growth rate that saw one million new subscriptions in just the first quarter of 2015. On this side, our plan is technology-agnostic.

Senator Conroy, we know, is not looking in this area in terms of technology; he is looking at this area in terms of theology. Senator Conroy has a belief system and, if he is the high priest of that belief system, I am worried. (Time expired)

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Will the minister also inform the Senate on nbn's plan to upgrade Australia's HFC cable network?

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government and nbn co do have big plans for HFC in Australia. Labor started the NBN with barely a plan A; we know that they do not even have a plan B now that they are in opposition. HFC is very capable high-speed broadband technology. Contrary to what those opposite have said, Optus is continuing to invest in HFC assets in advance of the handover to nbn. nbn will invest further in HFC, with new technologies like DOCSIS 3.1, which will allow for gigabit speeds. Unlike fibre to the premises, it already passes four million homes around Australia, as I have said, and the cost and the time to upgrade it are much smaller than Labor's rip-up and replace plan. We stand by our plan. We stand by nbn's approach.