Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this bill because making sure Australians have access to the proper telecommunications infrastructure to communicate is a critical part of living in a modern society. If you want to ask anybody about that, you just need to ask the Iranian people right now. They have lived with the consequences of a government that has shut down pathways for people to be able to communicate and speak out. Fortunately, technology has helped bypass that. The people of Iran have spoken up against the violence, harassment and murder of their citizens by their government, the ongoing and brutal treatment by the Islamic regime against the Iranian people, and the subjugation of women, the murdering of homosexuals and the exporting of terrorism around the world—in particular the incitement to kill Jews—including in Australia.

Telecommunications to help address these problems is an important part of a country being able to do its job and, more importantly, is about empowering citizens to be able to live out their best lives. We know full well that technology continues to evolve and that, done right, technology can be a central part in telecommunications infrastructure and can be a part of connecting people. But we shouldn't become rigid about this. That was why the former Labor government's plan around the NBN, where they were just going to deliver fibre to the home everywhere, wasn't just economically illiterate; it was also technologically illiterate. We've had technology that has superseded much of fibre to the home, which doesn't mean that it doesn't have value—no-one is arguing that—but that fibre has a place, as well as satellites, as well as mobile telephony. If you actually understand technology, progress isn't just through fixed infrastructure; it also comes as a consequence of changes and innovations in areas like software compression and data compression. It's in this basis that this legislation sits.

Technology plays an important role there, but it also plays an important role to address much more civilian challenges that we face today. You just need to go to the Goldstein electorate. In parts of Hampton East and Moorabbin, we're seeing more and more density of population and, more importantly, density in terms of building. If the state government has their plans—you'll see that, around most of the Goldstein electorate, it's largely just an attempted distraction away from their complete and utter failure to build the housing that Australians need to own or rent. It's backed up by propagation by the Minister for Housing, who continues to deceive the Australian community about the density of the population in parts of the electorate. The Goldstein electorate had density levels 30 years ago that were bigger than those of a lot of local councils that have seen significant population growth.

The shrill response from the Minister for Housing says that perhaps we've touched on a difficult and nervous point. But, when you deliberately seek to do as she has done, which is to point out the density levels of the Australian community—

we know full well that the minister has completely lost control of her portfolio and has absolutely no idea how she is doing her role, and she is fundamentally undermining the dream of homeownership for Australians.

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