Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to make a statement on the committee’s inquiry into the role and potential of the National Broadband Network. I want to take the opportunity, with my deputy chairperson, the member for Hinkler, to bring the House up to date on the progress of the inquiry currently underway by the Infrastructure and Communications Committee into the role and potential utilisation of the National Broadband Network. This was a referral made to the committee on 6 November last year by Minister Albanese, with a target for a report by the middle of this year, which we are aiming to achieve by August of this year.

The important thing is that committee has been asked to look at a very broad range of areas in which the National Broadband Network can be utilised in order to provide new transformative ways of delivering services across a number of government areas, including health, education and local government. We have already had a few submissions from local councils and regional divisions of local councils joining together and giving evidence—these are up on the website—about the sorts of improvements in delivery of their own services that they are looking to utilise the National Broadband Network to deliver. Also, we will look at broader agenda items such as environmental sustainability and regional growth and development.

It would be fair to say that if you look at the submissions to date that are on the website you will see that there is an overriding tone to the submissions received so far about how soon the rollout can get to them as they have all sorts of proposals that they want to get underway. So we are very keen to get out and talk to those communities and have a look at what they are looking to do. It will also give them the opportunity to indicate to us where they may see problems or additions that are required in government policy to enable them to utilise those opportunities. So we are particularly appreciative of some of the more technical and specialist submissions that have been made to the committee about the development of products, services and applications that will be utilised on a fibre-to-the-home national broadband.

At this point in time there are about 47 submissions on the committee’s website. I am advised that, given that submissions closed last Friday, there was a significant rush on the Friday to lodge additional submissions. In fact quite a few extensions have been granted to allow people more broadly to participate. The committee is particularly keen to hear from a wide cross-section. As chair, I particularly would like to encourage anyone who has evidence dealing with what I think is the important social and community benefit of a national broadband network fibre-to-the-home model. Something that international experience has highlighted is the capacity to give connection and participation opportunities to people who have mobility problems. This might be because of social isolation resulting from disability or because of ageing or infirmity issues. I have a simple example in my own area. I visited some social housing where a lady in her 70s took us in to show us her new unit. She said, ‘Don’t worry about the computer. That is my Skype connection on which I talk to all my friends in the US.’ She said that a particularly important part of moving into a new facility for her was the upgraded infrastructure for communications so that she, despite her mobility issues, could stay connected with friends around the world. To me it epitomised how significantly important from a social perspective this sort of infrastructure is. I particularly encourage people who have evidence or issues to raise with us about that to contact the committee. I invite them to participate as we begin the journey of our visits around the nation to capitals and regions. (Time expired)

Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the chair of the committee as her deputy on this progress report into the administrative side of the inquiry into the NBN. As you all know, the NBN and broadband in general is a controversial but very important matter that the parliament is now looking into in a variety of ways.

Minister Albanese gave us the terms of reference for this particular inquiry on 16 November last year, and we have been asked to look into the role and potential of the NBN with particular reference to government and service delivery; health; education; environmental sustainability; management of built and natural resources; regional growth and employment; business efficiencies; export opportunities, including for small business; research and innovation; and community and social benefits.

In the context of the above areas, the focus of the committee will be to examine the optimal capacity and technology required by the NBN. You can talk about the theory of it. What we want to see is whether this thing can deliver on the ground and, if it needs tweaking, what will need to be done. It is inevitable that it will involve discussing the primary fibre-to-the-home approach preferred by the government and the range of alternative technologies, including DSL and its variants, hybrid fibre-coaxial cable, fixed wireless, mobile wireless and satellite.

As the chair has said, we have had a rush of submissions. We had 47 as of our last meeting, and that has jumped by another 70, which we will be authorising this week. As she said, we have granted some extensions. Some things are emerging—for example, regional councils and RDA bodies are making submissions, as you would expect. Although we closed submissions on 25 February, I think the committee will be fairly accommodating if people still have something to say.

It is a very extensive program that the committee has mapped out. We will do Hobart, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth and then a range of provincial cities such as Scottsdale, Launceston, Ballarat, Townsville, Willunga, Kiama and Geraldton. The first public hearing will be in Canberra this coming Friday. At that particular meeting we will have people like the National Rural Health Alliance, the AMA and Department of Health and Ageing.

As we move around Australia, you can see other themes starting to develop. For example, in the education area, the Australian Council for Private Education and Training, Adult Learning Australia and Australian ICT and education wish to appear before us as well as the ANU and the CSIRO. There is an expectation of big things from NBN and broadband in general, so it will be interesting to hear what these people have to say. Tasmania will be important as we will be going to two of the centres where the NBN has already been connected and talking to people like the Dorset Council, the North East Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce, which are both based in Scottsdale. In Hobart we will hear from the University of Tasmania and the electronic commerce centre. There is also a strong community ICT and neighbourhood cable aspect when we go to Ballarat. No matter which part of Australia we go to, there are emerging themes and expectations of the NBN.

I wish to take a fairly cooperative view of this. I have been ambivalent to the NBN but I will go into this inquiry with an open mind. As I said, the fibre-to-the-home approach will be one of the tests that we look at in this inquiry. I look forward, as the chair has said, to everyone participating fully and I invite people who have not put submissions in to do so quickly.