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

No, it is not. That is not it, and this is where the leader of the National Party has misrepresented our position: 98 per cent is all that can be done on known technology today, fibre to the node. We have committed to ensure that the other two per cent get the equivalent access through alternative technologies, and we have funded and built that into our program. The Leader of the National Party said the other day that 400,000 Australians will miss out—that is the two per cent. He has not even bothered to read the policy. But then he goes on to assert that even the 98 per cent fibre-to-the-node connection cannot be made. Well, he is wrong on that count too, because Telstra itself has said it is capable of connecting 98 per cent with fibre to the node. What it is not prepared to do, though, is what this government leaves it to do, and that is make the investment where there is market failure.

The simple fact remains that, if it is left to Telstra or the G9 group, they will only connect where it is economic to do so. That is the capital cities. The regions will be left behind. That is what is called market failure. That has always been the case in this country. It always will be, in my view, because of the vastness of our size and the dispersal of the population. There is market failure when it comes to telecommunications, and that is why you need a government in there in partnership with the private providers, connecting the nation—the whole of the nation: all of the regions, not just the capital cities.

We have heard in this House that the government say they can do it without any public expenditure. That is what we have heard the smug Treasurer say: that their proposal to connect fibre to the node will be done without any public expenditure. But what then, I ask, has been the need for the $4 billion in public expenditure that this government has put into programs since it came to office—$4 billion ostensibly to connect the nation? They have criticised us for our $4.7 billion plan, essentially implying that you do not need any public money, when in fact they have spent $4 billion since they came to office but have failed to connect the regions at all. It has been a complete waste of money. We know they have had the money, of course, because they have sold Telstra. In fact, the only telecommunications plan the government have had has been to sell Telstra, not to connect the nation. But the simple fact remains that from all of those proceeds they have failed dismally to connect the nation. They have gone about from election to election offering more suggestions, more pork barrels, but they have not connected the nation.

Professor Smarr has also said that we need a fibre network because the copper network is not fast enough. We agree. But that is what our commitment is. We are the only party with a commitment to forge the partnership that will offer that fibre network, a network which can be continually upgraded so that the investment we make today can be built on for the future. The $4.7 billion that Labor have committed to is funded from existing government investments in telecommunications, including the $2 billion Communications Fund and through the Future Fund’s 17 per cent share in Telstra, which will earn dividends and be sold down to normal levels after November 2008. I ask the House: why should the proceeds of the further sale of Telstra simply be used to go to pay off the superannuation liabilities of Commonwealth public servants? Why shouldn’t there be a preparedness to use the nation’s earnings on its investment to reinvest in the national interest, for all Australians? In essence, what Labor are proposing to do is to use the proceeds from the nation’s past investment to reinvest in the nation’s future. That is a smart way to do things. It is the Labor way to do things. It is not the way this government is going.

In essence, Labor will do more with the remaining 17 per cent share of Telstra to connect the nation than the government has done by flogging off the other 83 per cent. The government’s sale of Telstra has been a disgrace in terms of reinvestment back into much-needed telecommunications infrastructure in this country. They talk about the need to have a community service obligation when it comes to standard telephone services, but why not a commitment to guarantee standard access to fast broadband over the internet? They will not do it. Only Labor is prepared to make that commitment. Only Labor is prepared to address the market failure. As usual, we see the government panicking. They know that Labor’s initiative has real traction. They are now trying to pretend that they really are committed to connecting the nation, but not so long ago the minister was saying, ‘No-one is complaining about broadband speeds in metropolitan Australia.’ I do not know who she has been listening to; there are parts of my electorate that still do not get broadband, and I know that other seats that we represent do not get it.

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