David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take the member’s interjection. It has been a series of unsatisfactory regulatory arrangements that have been in place over the course of a number of governments. But the difference between those governments that have come before and this government is that this government is prepared to make the significant microeconomic reform that is needed to deliver a telecommunications industry in this country that will foster innovation, drive down prices and deliver a competitive framework. This will ultimately give consumers and small business—business generally but, in particular, small business—access to a telecommunications sector that is competitive and delivers the best outcomes for those groups.

The current situation—if you listen to those on the other side—is clearly some sort of nirvana, when it comes to the current telecommunications regulatory environment. In fact, the reality of what we are dealing with is far from that. If we have a look at the process of consultation that the government embarked upon after making its NBN announcement earlier this year, we see that there were numerous submissions made. An overwhelming majority—in fact, nearly all of those submissions—identified the inadequate and unsatisfactory nature of the current regulatory arrangements. These measures are responding to the inadequacy of those arrangements. These measures, for the first time, are demonstrating on the part of this government a preparedness to make the hard decisions—the big decisions—that will set up the telecommunications industry and our economy into the future.

If we look at what some of those submissions said, we see that the inescapable conclusion that I think was best identified by the ACCC was that Telstra remains one of the most integrated telecommunications companies in the world. There are a range of issues that are to be debated as part of this legislation. The National Broadband Network, albeit not inextricably connected to this legislation, is an important element of the debate that is to be had. The NBN is the plan that we will roll out across this country. It will deliver high-speed broadband and do what the previous government so abysmally failed to do. They have a very poor record when it comes to broadband.

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