John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. Will the minister update the House on the steps the government is taking to ensure Australia has the strong and viable communications it needs to take advantage of the opportunities the future will present?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The Intergenerational report, through every page, cries out for innovation, for science, for technology and for productivity. The reality is, if we are to win the opportunities that the future offers us and seize the future in the optimistic way the Treasurer has described—as the government describes—then we need to be able to embrace the future. We need to be able to embrace volatility. Volatility has to be our friend not our enemy.

The future is not something we proof ourselves against. It is something we embrace. To do that, we need to be nimble; we need to be agile. We must never approach problems in a rigid, ideological way harking back to the past. The NBN is a classic example. We have been focused from the outset on what the customer needs. What does the customer need? Very good broadband. What technology should be used? Whatever technology is most cost-effective at the time—

Ms Ryan interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lalor will desist.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And what that is today may be different tomorrow—whereas the Labor Party was driven by ideology into locking itself into one slow and expensive platform.

Take Australia Post. Obviously people are sending fewer letters. Clearly the letters business is getting further and further into the red. What did we do? We did not throw up our hands and say: 'Oh, that is a dreadful thing!' We exposed the problem carefully, we analysed it and we are taking steps to ensure that Australia Post and its 32,000 employees will have a prosperous future well down the track—again, by being agile.

If you look at mobile communications in the bush—the smart phone. Our smart phones are almost part of us. They have become our single most important point of communication. But in the bush there are many blackspots. For six years the Labor Party was in government and they did nothing. We the coalition once again are spending $100 million to remedy those blackspots, and no doubt we will spend more in the future.

Leadership today, whether it is in business or whether it is in government, requires the attitude that the coalition has—an attitude of innovation, progress, embracing technology and volatility, making it your friend, embracing the future, not running away from it, which is the mark of the Labor Party.