Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Mallee for his question, and I am delighted to answer it, representing the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. The honourable member for Mallee well knows how the government’s broadband policy announced yesterday, Australia Connected, will benefit his electorate and all of Australia. For instance, I note that the 3,800 people living in Kerang, in his electorate, will receive an exchange upgrade to very fast ADSL2+ broadband. There will also be some 24 new wireless broadband sites, WiMAX sites, across the electorate, including in the towns of Bannerton, Dimboola, Dooen, Macorna, Shelford, Quambatook and Wycheproof. There are 24 towns in the Mallee that are part of the 1,361 new WiMAX sites across Australia that will begin coming online in September this year.

So the member for Mallee has a story to tell, but then again so does every member of the government, wherever they represent an electorate, because 99 per cent of Australians will receive a benefit under the government’s broadband policy and, for the one per cent, we will continue the subsidy of $2,750 to maintain broadband access. Compare that to the Labor Party’s broadband policy, which covers only 75 per cent of Australia’s population—and the remaining 25 per cent are not catered for. Too bad if you live in some of the towns in the member for Mallee’s electorate that I have just mentioned or even in some of the regional centres such as Ballarat, Traralgon, Bendigo, Orange and so on.

But as we all know, telecommunications is ever evolving, and we as a government need to continually invest in it where there is market failure or disadvantage, especially in rural and remote areas. That is why we have the $2 billion Communications Fund. That will provide, on average, $400 million of interest every three years which will be invested in infrastructure throughout regional Australia. It could be for mobile phone towers, broadband access or even back-haul fibre capabilities. So it is terribly important to have that fund.

I am asked by the honourable member for Mallee what the threats are to security of services in rural regions. Obviously the Labor Party’s policy to abolish the fund is a threat. They will abolish the $2 billion Communications Fund. The Labor Party have a policy that covers only 75 per cent of Australians, and you can easily deduce where the bulk of the remaining 25 per cent of Australians will live—regional and remote Australia. And they hope to pay for that policy by abolishing a $2 billion fund set up in perpetuity to continue to invest in regional Australia. The Labor Party simply cannot help themselves. They do not have the fiscal discipline. They will always steal from the piggy bank.

For that reason, the government is going to legislate to protect the $2 billion Communications Fund in perpetuity. So there will be no sleight of hand, there will be no smoke and mirrors, should the Labor Party come to government; they will have to come into this chamber and legislate the abolition of the $2 billion Communications Fund established for regional Australia. The Labor Party cannot be trusted to manage telecommunications policy now—and certainly not in government. For that reason, we will institute the legislative guarantees necessary to protect regional and rural Australia.

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