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

Altona, of course. These are all areas in metropolitan Australia that, like regional Australia, are missing out because of the government’s flawed approach. The government have no plans and no costings. They have made no commitment to roll out 12 megabits per second. Labor is the only party to have made such a commitment. On the one hand, we have the Treasurer saying that no public money needs to be committed and, on the other hand, we have other ministers telling us how they are going to find additional funds to meet regional Australia’s needs. Why would we believe them now? They have been making these claims for the past 11 years and they have failed to deliver.

This country needs a party that is committed to addressing the market failure and committed to ensuring that the whole of Australia is connected and that the regions are not left behind. The only party with such a plan is the Labor Party, and the sooner we have an election to give us the opportunity to implement it, the better off this country will be.

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