Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Does the minister recall her media release attempting to defend her claim that no-one is complaining about metropolitan broadband speed in Australia? Why did the minister claim that the number of Australians with access to ADSL broadband is ‘growing exponentially’ as carriers enable more and more exchanges under the Metropolitan Broadband Connect program? Can the minister confirm that this program was announced in the 2005 budget? Is it not true that, 18 months after it was announced, the program has been found to be an abject failure, with barely any of the $50 million allocated to it having actually been spent? Will the minister now apologise to Australians in metropolitan areas for misleading them about the impact of this program on their broadband access?