Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is totally opposed to the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Protecting Services for Rural and Regional Australia into the Future) Bill 2007. This legislation is, of course, just the latest communications proposal from the Howard government. They have made some 17 different broadband program announcements in less than five years, but none of them has given Australia the national broadband network that we need to be competitive with the rest of the developed world.

There are many issues that draw a vast distinction between Labor’s comprehensive broadband plan and the government’s policy, and I outlined some of those earlier in this debate. However, I believe price to consumers is a critical issue. Unlike the Howard government, Labor does not believe that a government should set consumer prices. Prices should be set by an independent regulator—after negotiations with the parties—who will ensure the best possible outcomes for the consumer. What will achieve the best outcome for the consumer is establishing a structure which encourages the market to work. Labor’s fibre-to-the-node network is open access. This will ensure more competition between providers, which will lead to a lowering of prices.

The Howard government’s proposed program, even for the cities to which it is restricted, has no starting date. The government has said that it will form a committee—that is what the government has as its plan to move forward. Because Labor is prepared to move to that superior technology of a fibre-to-the-node network, Labor’s plan will ensure that we move more quickly to where we need to end up. We know that it is unsustainable to think that Australia would continue to be in the position we are in now. We know that the Howard government’s half-baked proposals for cities, and very inferior and second-tier proposals for rural and regional Australia and outer suburbs, are unsustainable in the long term. Therefore, the more quickly we move to a fibre-to-the-node network, the more quickly we will be in a position to actually compete with other countries in our region.

The government have been extraordinarily negligent in the way that they have dealt with these issues. They have responded, and this legislation is a product of that response, to the fact that Labor’s broadband strategy has been well received by consumers and well received by business. It is a part of Labor’s comprehensive strategy to deal with infrastructure. In the past 24 hours we have had a debate about the increase in interest rates. Labor will continue to argue that one of the threats to the economy, as has been indicated by the Reserve Bank of Australia, is the failure to invest in skills and infrastructure—the failure to invest in our human capital and the failure to invest in our physical capital. Of those infrastructure shortfalls, communications is a critical component. It is one of the four areas—along with energy, water and transport—that Labor have identified as our priority, because we have a comprehensive infrastructure plan.

Labor will create Infrastructure Australia, a statutory authority made up of representatives of Commonwealth and state governments and the private sector. It will be a statutory authority that will drive the prioritisation of infrastructure and coordination that Australia needs. We will of course have an infrastructure minister—something that this government has not bothered to do because it does not regard the coordination of infrastructure as a necessity. That body will conduct an audit and establish an infrastructure priority list. When I listen to the criticisms of those opposite—and it happened in question time again yesterday—they say, ‘We have AusLink’. That is infrastructure; nothing else. Telecommunications, energy, water, a coordinated approach to infrastructure for the nation for regional and rural Australia and urban Australia are simply not on the agenda of the Howard government.

Let us be clear: the earnings of the Communications Fund, which this bill provides for to sustain the roll-out of telecommunications services in rural, regional and remote Australia, are simply not enough. Labor makes no apologies for using the Communications Fund to build a national broadband network that will vastly improve telecommunications services across Australia, including rural, regional and remote Australia. The Howard government have ceased to govern for the national interest—in fact some would already argue that they have ceased to govern completely. This legislation is at best a political stunt against the Labor Party, but one that undermines their coalition partners in the National Party. I wish therefore to move the following amendment:

That all words after ‘That’ be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: “the House declines to give the Bill a second reading and condemns the Government for it sfailure to invest the $2 billion Communications Fund in a national fibre to the node broadband network to ensure:

(a)

parity of service and metro comparable pricing for all Australians serviced by the fibre to the node network;

(b)

the state of broadband services in Australia is turned around, after the past 11 years of neglect under the Howard Government;

(c)

Australians have access to the best available telecommunication technologies;

(d)

Australians in rural and regional areas have improved telecommunication services, including access to e-health and e-eduction, which are only possible over a fibre to the node network. The interest earned on the Communications Fund (up to $400 million every 3 years) is not enough to ensure this;

(e)

98 per  cent of Australians, including those in rural and regional areas, have access to future proof telecommunications technology; and

(f)

the two per cent of people that the new fibre to node network will not reach have a standard of service, depending on the available technology, that is as close as possible to that provided by the new network”.

Labor moves that amendment to put very clearly the choice that is there: on the one hand, under the government, essentially up to $133 million a year for rural and regional telecommunications; under Labor, a comprehensive $4.7 billion program done as a private-public partnership to ensure that all Australians have access to high-speed broadband, not just because this is a communications issue somehow viewed in isolation but because telecommunications are a driver of economic growth. Without being competitive in the area of telecommunications as a vital piece of infrastructure we cannot compete economically. This legislation would ensure that we will increasingly have a two-tiered system whereby people, because of where they live—such as in your electorate, Mr Speaker—will not have the same services that are available in my electorate in inner Sydney. That is what this is about.

If you live in inner Sydney you are going to have high-speed broadband services—not as good under the government’s option as what we are putting forward but nonetheless better in comparison with those for people in outer suburban areas or in rural and regional Australia. That is not the only matter. This government, because of its tired leadership that is old in its ideas and incapable of moving forward with the challenges in the new century, just does not get how vital this is for education, health and our future economic and social development. This is a tired old government that has been here for too long—that this week told the rest of the Australia that it has given up on governing, that it is simply about trying to buy its way to another election victory regardless of the economic consequences—and not just regardless of the economic consequences but regardless of the fact that it is neglecting the big issues and challenges which need to be taken on if we are truly going to be able to move forward in Australia’s long-term national interest rather than just the short-term political interest.

In this case, however, I cannot understand how any regional or rural representative, whether of the Liberal Party or of the appendage laughingly called the National Party, can possibly support this totally inadequate legislation. I can understand how the member for Gippsland, who represents the communications minister, can support this—because I have met him. Anyone who meets him understands why he could support totally inadequate legislation—because he is simply not up to it. But I would call upon other members to stand up for their constituents and demand the same services for all Australians regardless of where they live. I commend the amendment to the House.

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