Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I do thank Senator Heffernan for the question and acknowledge his genuine longstanding interest in ensuring Australians around the country have access to adequate internet services. I am happy to say that I am aware of some recent evidence, a report from the ACCC, that shows that broadband take-up in Australia is continuing to forge ahead. In fact, according to the most recent report, released last month, there were almost 2.6 million broadband services connected across Australia. This represents an increase of over one million customers, or 98 per cent, just over the preceding 12 months. Total quarterly growth in broadband was 19 per cent for the September 2005 quarter, on the back of 18.4 per cent growth in the June quarter. In fact, growth of broadband subscribers has topped 18 per cent for seven consecutive quarters. This is, I think we will all agree, phenomenal growth and makes the continual carping from those opposite about broadband coverage sound a bit hollow, particularly given the ALP’s history of wanting to mandate the spending of billions of dollars on outdated dial-up services. Even though, to listen to those opposite, you would think that ADSL technology is the only type of broadband there is, in fact there has been a significant growth across all technologies—cable, ADSL, wireless and satellite.