John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

The President has received a letter from Senator Conroy proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion, namely:

The Australian Government’s complacency on the roll-out of broadband infrastructure is holding back the Australian economy as evidenced by:

(a)

the OECD, the World Economic Forum and the World Bank all recognising Australia’s status as a broadband backwater;

(b)

media leaders from Fairfax and PBL identifying Australia’s antiquated broadband infrastructure as a constraint to their business; and

(c)

the collapse of Telstra’s plans to construct a fibre to the node network leaving Australia without a pathway to a fibre based upgrade of Australia’s broadband infrastructure.

I call upon those senators who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today’s debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.