Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to speak tonight on Telstra and the broadband network. I know we had the telecommunications legislation before the House this afternoon, but this matter arises out of an email I received this afternoon from David Pahlke, the councillor for division 10 on the Ipswich City Council. David has been a strong advocate for the local area, complaining about what Telstra has not been doing. He sent an email to Telstra Country Wide today about how Telstra looks after the country, and he attached a photograph. The location shown is Tallegalla Road, Minden, not far from the intersection with Neuendorffs Road. I have here a picture that David has given to me. Last week, when I was driving around the Somerset region with David, we found similar situations in place after place.

It is not good enough that Telstra behaves in this way. There is too much integration, too much vertical and horizontal control of the marketplace. That is what we are resolving with the legislation that is being debated in the House—we are making sure that there is structural and functional separation. We have asked Telstra to participate, to be involved in the great nation-building project that is the National Broadband Network, but they thumb their nose at us. So the government is putting forward its $43 billion plan and putting $4.7 billion into it, fulfilling an election commitment.

The trouble we have now is the delay and obstructionism by those opposite. We have Senator Joyce supporting what we are doing. We have Senator Minchin opposing it. We have the Liberal candidate in Bradfield saying what a good idea it would be. We have the member for Cowper saying that hellfire and brimstone are going to come down if we do this. We have the animated and agitated member for Wide Bay saying how bad this legislation is and that we should not be doing anything until we have the implementation plan through.

It is extremely important for regional and rural Australia and for my electorate of Blair that we get this legislation through. It is important we have Telstra behave not like it is but in a way that looks after regional and rural Australia. There are 18 failed plans for my electorate; 18 failed coalition telecommunications plans across this country. The coalition has not done much, except privatise Telstra, since 1997. The consequences are that farmers, small business operators, doctors, students and residential property owners in regional and rural areas—particularly in my seat, which is 6,400 square kilometres in South East Queensland—need proper telecommunications. They need better, fast-speed broadband.

What is the coalition doing now? Coalition members are opposing it. It is inexcusable and inexplicable that the coalition is opposing our plans with respect to the National Broadband Network and the legislation before the House that we are debating. It is a disgrace that the coalition has adopted this attitude. I would love to have been a fly on the wall during their cabinet meetings. You wonder what they discussed when they talked about telecommunications. There was inertia, inaction, ignorance and idleness with respect to the National Broadband Network and bringing services to rural and regional communities across this country. That is what the consequences of the Howard years are for regional and rural Australia. The Nationals tell us how they are standing up for the bush. Well, they are not standing up for the bush in South East Queensland. They are not standing up for the bush in my electorate. They are not standing up for rural and regional Ipswich, Lockyer, Scenic Rim or Somerset. They are opposing the benefits that could flow to those communities by their obstructionism, by their opposition, by their ignorance and by their failure to come on board with a great national project that will be the great legacy of the Rudd Labor government.