Ken Ticehurst (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Protecting Services for Rural and Regional Australia into the Future) Bill 2007 will ensure that Australia’s perpetual $2 billion Communications Fund cannot be raided and frivolously spent. It will protect in legislation the $2 billion principal of the Communications Fund so that only the interest earned from the fund, up to $400 million every three years, can be spent. The Communications Fund was established by the government in 2005 and provides a guaranteed income stream to fund hard infrastructure for regional communities, such as additional mobile towers, broadband provision and even backhaul fibre capabilities. The fund’s capital will be invested and the revenue generated will be spent on ensuring rural, regional and remote Australians can access affordable and reliable telecommunications services in the future. This will provide certainty for people in regional and remote Australia that the improvements in their telecommunications services will keep pace with the rest of the nation, effectively future proofing telecommunications services. Spending from the fund will be tied to independent, regular reviews of telecommunications services in rural, regional and remote Australia. The first review will be conducted in 2008, with reviews to follow every three years after that.

The Communications Fund, along with Australia Connected and the Australian Broadband Guarantee initiatives, clearly demonstrate the Australian government’s commitment to ensuring all Australians will have access to competitive state-of-the-art telecommunications. Australia Connected is immediately rolling out a new competitive state-of-the-art broadband network that will extend high-speed services to 99 per cent of the population, utilising a mix of fibre optic cabling, ADSL2+ and wireless broadband platforms. By using the variety of the broadband mediums available to us the Australian government is able to ensure the residents of the Central Coast are receiving the best quality broadband services at the best price. In direct contrast, Labor’s belief that one type of broadband delivery will adequately service all is ludicrous. If Labor knew anything about broadband, they would know that Australia’s geographic conditions require the best mix of technologies. The Australian government is making the best use of this mix.

It has been 10 years since the Howard government took the landmark decision to open up Australia’s telecommunications regime to competition, forever changing our telecommunications landscape by delivering significant benefits to consumers in terms of choice and price. Australia’s telecommunications industry has been transformed from a single dominant provider to full and open competition, with 167 licensed carriers in the marketplace and prices falling by over 26 per cent.

Recently the government released the much anticipated Australia Connected announcement and named OPEL as the winning bidder to roll out a new, wholesale high-speed broadband network across Australia. OPEL, a joint venture by Optus and rural group Elders, will deliver Australia one of the world’s most comprehensive rural and regional broadband networks for a country of our size and population spread. Broadband speeds will be 20 to 40 times faster than those used today and delivered in the country at city comparable prices. OPEL’s new network will be funded by government support of $600 million from the program and $358 million of additional funding to a total of $958 million. OPEL’s own commercial contribution to the network is $917 million. The new broadband services will retail for between $35 and $60 per month, depending on the speed package chosen by the consumer. This sound technological investment in broadband means that local residents living and working in the Dobell electorate will very soon have access to high-quality, fast and affordable broadband for the first time. It is a shame that Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo is demonstrating sour grapes. They did not have the wit to put in an innovative alternative tender. The Next G technology that they are providing is really first class. Surely they could have come up with a better price proposition than what they have come up with.

OPEL’s sound technology investment means that local residents will certainly be much better off. Under the Australia Connected scheme, areas such as Bateau Bay, Blue Haven, Wyoming, Mardi, Warnervale and even most of Jilliby in the Yarramalong Valley can look forward to internet speeds of six, 12 and eventually even 20 megabits. By 2009 Australia Connected will provide 99 per cent of Australians with access to a broadband speed of 12 megabits, which is 20 to 40 times faster than that in use by most customers today. This is a huge win for local residents, who have been lobbying for a long time to get access to even basic broadband and telecommunications services. Within the next couple of years they will have access to the latest technical improvements in this field.

Everyone in Dobell can benefit from these telecommunications initiatives, including those running their businesses from home, those working in our hospitals and schools, families who use the internet to keep in touch with loved ones, and our business people who use it to contact their customers and suppliers and to find new markets for their products and services. Indeed, many small businesses are microbusinesses, mainly run by women operating from home. Broadband certainly improves their access. Students and parents on the Central Coast are especially pleased with this federal government initiative as it will make completing schoolwork at home a lot easier, as they will have fast access to relevant information and sources.

On the other hand, Labor plans to waste $4.7 billion of taxpayers’ money on a broadband proposal about which they refuse to disclose until after the election basic information such as coverage maps, detailed costing and how their joint arrangement would work. The member for Grayndler criticised some of the maps produced by OPEL. Where are the Labor maps? What technology are they going to use? How are they going to get fibre to the node to 98 per cent of the Australian population? Telstra cannot do it. Some of the people on that side have some technical competence, like the member for Blaxland, who has been dumped for another union heavyweight. He is the one member over there who understands something about telecommunications; the rest of them are Rudd duds.

Industry analysts have also slammed Labor’s claim to reach 98 per cent of Australia’s population and are predicting a massive cost blow-out by Labor. Indeed, this $4.7 billion plan is an old rehash of something Telstra proposed some years ago. That is why there is no detail—Labor does not understand it. It demonstrates a real economic risk that Labor presents to the taxpayers. Even Telstra’s five-city program is going to cost $4 billion or $5 billion, and that will only cover a very small proportion of the Australian population. It certainly will not do anything for the people in Dobell. On top of that Labor has committed to drain the entire $2 billion from the Communications Fund, rob the bush of its ongoing funding and squander the funds on a network that is estimated to reach only about 75 per cent of the population. The remaining 25 per cent of the population in rural and regional areas will be stranded without any future service upgrades under Labor. Ironically, it is the 25 per cent of consumers in rural and regional Australia that the Communications Fund was established to protect and that the Labor Party will abandon if elected. Not content with pillaging the Communications Fund, Labor has also promised to grab a further $2.7 billion from the Future Fund for a total of $4.7 billion to waste on a broadband network that the industry says will fund itself. And we know that governments cannot run businesses.

Furthermore, having racked up $96 billion in debt when last in power, the Labor Party has now committed to raiding the Future Fund to pay for its election promises. This represents an irresponsible and short-sighted policy which would penalise future generations by running down the money set aside to meet future costs. Taxpayer funds should be used to deliver equity in underserved areas and ensure regional and rural Australians are not left behind in the ongoing telecommunications technology revolution.

This is a particularly important bill, as its passage through parliament will protect rural and regional Australia from the gross economic irresponsibility of the Labor Party. The very clear challenge to the Leader of the Opposition and his party is to provide the costings, coverage maps and technical information about their broadband proposal for the full scrutiny of the Australian public. This needs to be done before the election; otherwise, it will just be another Rudd dud. All details of the government’s new national broadband network are in the public domain, but we have heard nothing but rhetoric from the Labor Party. It is clear that Labor does not have a genuine broadband strategy for Australia beyond our major capital cities. That is its base, that is where its constituents are, and that is where its union heavyweights live. Its plan has no detail, no technical backing and no plan for the 25 per cent of the population that Labor will leave stranded without a service. We saw this happen in the mobile telephony area. When it dumped AMPS, rural communication was left without any mobile service until the Howard government introduced the CDMA network.

This bill will prevent a future government covertly abolishing the Communications Fund. Any future government that wants to abolish the Communications Fund will have to publicly introduce legislation to do so. This whole process provides certainty for people in rural and regional Australia that the improvements in their telecommunications services will keep pace with the rest of the nation in stark contrast to Labor’s proposal. Labor is not interested in the needs of rural and regional constituents of Dobell; it is only interested in having more union bosses in Canberra. We have seen the disdain it has for the constituents in the Central Coast area by parachuting in candidates from Victoria. Candidates could not get a seat down there. Many members were being dumped and even the member for Hotham had to mount a rearguard action to maintain his preselection.

The Labor Party’s hurry to raid both the Future Fund and the regional Communications Fund for short-term political fixes reveals its dire inability to manage the country’s economy. This demonstrates Labor’s complete lack of interest in Australia’s future. We cannot avoid the fact that we are an ageing population. This funding has been quarantined to deal with our future liabilities.

The unfortunate truth for the opposition is that the government’s broadband programs have now achieved much more than Labor claimed they would, and we have done it four years earlier and for a fraction of the cost to taxpayers. Our proposals are fully costed and fully planned, and the new national broadband network will start rolling out immediately. Australia cannot afford to wait until 2013 for the ALP’s network to be completed.

The coalition government will not need to raid the Future Fund to establish a national broadband network. We have been able to do this because of the government’s commitment to having appropriate and focused policies and strategies in place. We have introduced policies to foster a competitive environment for the delivery of broadband services. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. In fact, the fibre-to-the-node network would not provide a service in the area I live, and I am 10 kilometres off the Sydney-Newcastle freeway and three kilometres off the main distributor road from the freeway into most of the Central Coast population. Fibre to the node will do absolutely nothing for other people who live in an area like mine. We are about two kilometres from residential customers. That is the fallacy of fibre to the node. You cannot achieve full broadband with one technology. The government has created the environment, and investment in telecommunications infrastructure and services is strong. This bill secures the Communications Fund to protect the long-term interests of rural, regional and remote Australia. I am confident that the Australian government has got the balance right and that this new network will deliver an enormous productivity boost to the electorate of Dobell.

Indeed, the member for Grayndler rubbished the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access program. He obviously does not understand that WiMAX is a new and developing technology. It is similar to Next G in its infancy. Both of these programs can be improved.

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