Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I think the contempt that the Deputy Leader of the National Party is showing his constituency on this very important issue is an indication as to why the regions are not connected. They are not connected because this government does not care about them. That cost, $2.7 billion—that is 30,000 jobs—is the cost for one year alone. Just imagine how much the regions have been missing out since this government has been in office!

It is not, as I said, just about how businesses can take the opportunity. Just think about it: why would businesses set up in the regions if they cannot get the same speed of access to the internet as you get in the capital cities? Where is the encouragement to decentralise? Where is the encouragement to home based industries? Where is the ability for people looking for markets to access this information readily? Where is its ability to make the tenders and make the offers? That is what the regions are missing out on. But it is not just businesses.

Think about it in terms of educational opportunity for young kids growing up in the regions. If they cannot get the same access to the internet as their contemporaries in the capital cities, just imagine what they are missing out on in terms of their learning opportunities. And what about entertainment, the cultural dimension, for people who make the choice to live, grow up and develop in regional communities? They cannot get the same entertainment. And what about the cultural connectivity? This is why this is such a fundamental investment that needs to be made.

I note that Professor Smarr said in the article today that it was encouraging that this debate was being had in this country today. The only reason we are having the debate in this country today is that Labor has put out a plan to connect the nation—a plan that is costed, a plan that is funded, a $4.7 billion plan that will enable the rollout of a new fibre-to-the-node network across the whole of the country. It will connect, through fibre to the node, 98 per cent of Australians to high-speed broadband services at a minimum speed of 12 megabits per second, a speed almost 40 times faster than most current speeds. The remaining two per cent—

See this speech in context