Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians understand the limitations of distance and the possibilities of innovations. They are all part and parcel of living in the most sparsely populated country on the planet. I have always argued that we need to have a mix of technologies—not just fibre—to deliver sound broadband services throughout the nation, with quality solutions for each sector of need. In the same way that we need road, rail, ports and airports as transport infrastructure, so we need varied broadband solutions for communications. The coalition’s $1.9 billion Australia Connected program puts Labor’s proposal to shame on two fronts. Firstly, we will roll out broadband technology to regional areas further and faster than Labor ever promised to do and, secondly, we are going to do it in an economically responsible way. We are not going to raid the Communications Fund as a wanton, policy-devoid Labor Party would do. We are not going to neglect the three million households and small businesses that Labor was prepared to sweep under the carpet under its proposal—three million Australians quietly ignored. And we are going to have our network up by 2009, not four years later, in 2013. Let us get one thing straight: Labor does not care much about broadband or the bush. In the past, Labor has shown such disregard for regional Australia that it described the government’s $3.1 billion Connect Australia package as ‘one of the National Party’s slush funds’.

I pose this question: are they likely to run fibre to the farm? That is something that I would like to see. It would make Korea’s $50 billion outlay look like a Sunday school picnic. Labor has not even bothered to talk to Optus or Elders. Imagine that: the people who are rolling this out have not even been spoken to. This conglomerate proposes to invest $917 million in building a new network. The OPEL network has been designed from the grassroots to meet the specific needs of rural and regional users and it will have open access to other providers and ISPs, several of whom I have in my electorate. They will be able to buy services at a wholesale price. Eighty per cent of OPEL’s funds will go towards improving back-haul routes with major congestion and addressing monopoly pricing issues, which have always been the bane of the bush. But the member for Melbourne in leading this debate today sought to rubbish WiMAX technology, which is being rolled out to 100 million Americans. Funny that.

Labor are not interested in the bush. In fact, a shadow minister, the member for Hunter, admitted that the opposition had not even bothered to test their own plans to find out who would miss out. I think his words were something like this: ‘We don’t have the technical backing to make those final conclusions.’ Not good enough. Labor’s grand plan is to make the bush expendable. Clearly, the government’s policy is superior to Labor’s, and the NFF has said as much:

The choice of Wimax wireless technology, supplementing the additional ADSL2 + technology, to deliver services … is vitally important, but also provides the opportunity for scalable high speed broadband into the future. The services, combined with other technologies such as satellite, will deliver high speed broadband across the entire nation – including to farmers in the remotest parts of Australia. … The extra $358 million commitment—$958 million in all—by Government represents a major positive for regional Australia.

The government proposes a four-part solution: more optic fibre to the capital cities and leading provincials; 426 ADSL2+ upgraded exchanges upgrades, delivering 40 times the current speed; 1,361 WiMAX points of presence, providing 40 times the speed— (Time expired)

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