Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to draw the attention of the House to the realities of broadband accessibility in the federal seat of Adelaide. I was bemused, to say the least, early last week in the wake of the decision to scrap plans for a new high-speed broadband network when the federal Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts attempted to counter the widespread public disappointment not by coming up with alternative solutions but by rapping us on the knuckles for expecting far too much. I refer in particular to comments the minister made on the ABC’s 7.30 Report, in which she told us that here in Adelaide we ought to be happy with our broadband speeds as they are. These comments generated a lot of interest in my seat of Adelaide, and I imagine the members for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, whose electorates were also referred to in the minister’s comments, experienced a similar flare-up of emotion from the many small businesses, students and families experiencing the harsh reality of Australia’s inadequate broadband technology.

The statistics on broadband in this country are clearly of concern. Australia is ranked 17th out of 30 countries surveyed by the OECD for take-up of the 256 kilobits per second broadband. The World Economic Forum ranks Australia 25th in the world in available internet bandwidth and Australia’s network readiness at 15th—and falling. A recent World Bank study also confirms that Australia has access to some of the slowest broadband in the developed world. Clearly these failings have severe implications for the residents and businesses of Adelaide.

Since I was elected to serve in this parliament, I have made representations on behalf of my constituents across my electorate who for a variety of reasons cannot receive adequate broadband in their home or in their workplace. I have directed these concerns to both Telstra and to the minister, and I find it appalling that the minister earlier this month, again on ABC’s 7.30 Report, chose to misrepresent the situation by claiming, ‘No-one is complaining about the speeds of broadband in metropolitan areas.’ The reality, in stark contrast to the picture presented by the minister, reveals a system which is unable to provide adequate broadband services in parts of central and inner metropolitan Adelaide—in areas particularly around Dulwich, Northgate, Wayville, Goodwood, Unley and Prospect.

Since I have been here I have been astounded by the various examples, including one quite recently when my office was rung by a woman who could not access broadband at all although she lives less than 10 kilometres from the city of Adelaide. One constituent summed it up this way when she said, ‘I cannot believe that in Goodwood, in the electorate of Adelaide, I cannot get broadband. I don’t understand it. It’s not like we are in an isolated region of the state.’

I also have copies of correspondence from Telstra, in which they have rejected appeals to upgrade, in my electorate, pair gain system infrastructure to ADSL on the basis that an upgrade ‘would not be commercially viable’. I would like to point out on the record, however, that what I believe is not commercially viable is a situation in which the government’s failure to ensure adequate broadband infrastructure is resulting in residents in CBD suburbs in Adelaide being unable to obtain access to the internet, in some cases at all, and certainly at economically competitive rates.

What is desperately needed is for the government to take leadership in this issue, and I believe that Labor’s policy on broadband will address the problems being experienced in my seat of Adelaide by delivering a national broadband network in partnership with the telecommunications sector. This fibre-to-the-node network will give Australia the superfast broadband infrastructure Adelaide families and businesses need. For the first time, millions of families and businesses across the country would have access to superfast broadband internet. The network speed of at least six megabits per second would be 25 times faster than the current broadband benchmark of 256 kilobits per second.

The repercussions for businesses in Adelaide and Australia would be immense, from slashing local and international telephone costs—and thereby making STD charges obsolete—to making available new entertainment and communications applications, such as video on demand, digital TV over the internet and video phones, and fostering the expansion of currently unavailable services, such as e-health, e-education and an increasing range of government services.

The need for improved infrastructure is obvious and the vision from the current government is desperately lacking. Australians are right to demand more from the government on this issue. My fear is that the government does not have the vision to deliver upon these expectations and I would again urge them to act in the interests of our nation.