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

I am sure that Australians are very glad that they are not waiting for Labor’s plan, which depends on Telstra’s plan, that would not have started till 2009 and still relies on copper to the home to deliver any service. In fact, Senator Conroy is completely wrong about Australia and broadband. You only have to look at the OECD league table to see that our broadband take-up is growing at the fifth fastest rate in the world, faster than the US, the UK, Japan, Korea, Canada, France, Germany and many others. This is hardly a broadband backwater. The only backwater in the broadband debate is the fact that the Labor Party always looks backward, never forward, and has not a clue about how to deliver a future for telecommunications.