Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on a matter of public importance: Australia’s status as a broadband backwater and the refusal of the minister to even acknowledge the existence of the problem. In a week in which Australia’s antiquated broadband infrastructure was on the front pages of every newspaper in Australia, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts was staunchly insisting that there was really no problem. Senator Coonan stated that Australians in metropolitan areas—and she named them; she said, ‘Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth’—should be reasonably happy with their speed of broadband. She then stated that painting a bleak picture of internet speeds in Australia is misleading and that around four million Australians already have been connected to broadband, which she said was hardly an indictment on the state of broadband in Australia. That is Senator Coonan’s view of what is going on in her own portfolio.

It is difficult to know what the minister was more out of touch with—the voting public or the reality on the ground for Australia’s broadband infrastructure. The voting public was certainly none too impressed with the minister’s comments. In fact, her comments were jarring enough for the Age newspaper to ask its readers what they thought of the minister’s comments on a forum on its website. The torrent of complaints that reached this site in the next 24 hours was extraordinary and at times quite amusing. More than 100 readers wrote in to express their disgust at the minister’s statement. The readers were furious. It is instructive to read directly from a few of them just to demonstrate the arrogance of this government and this minister and how they have lost touch with ordinary Australians. Here are some of the quotes:

Coonan obviously lives inside a perspex bubble, tucked in the back of a cave, hidden under a large rock.

Another stated:

Helen Coonan is completely out of touch. I vehemently disagree with what she said.

Another said:

EVERYBODY is complaining about our laughably poor broadband: the IT industry, academia, the business sector, and these obscure people known as “the Australian public” to whom the Howard government never listens.

Another stated:

We’re complaining. Coonans not listening!!! Governments not acting!!!

Another simply said:

I. AM. COMPLAINING.

The message for the minister on this bulletin board was clear: it is time to start listening to the IT users of Australia and to provide some leadership to remedy Australia’s status as a broadband backwater. These complaints were not merely out of self-interest. These voters did not just want faster broadband to help them play video games or download movies. Instead, these voters understood the national significance of Australia’s backwards position on broadband. One reader made an astute comment on the broader national implications of the minister’s comments:

How are we as a country planning to remain competitive if we are chained to outdated technology? Helen Coonan can try to convince the public that all is well but in reality we are going to be left far far behind the rest of the world if a high-speed broadband system is not built. And it must be soon.

This reader is exactly right. That is what this debate is about. Australia will be left behind the rest of the world, unless the country receives a significant new investment in broadband infrastructure. If we do not receive this investment, the Australian economy will be the loser. This is not a dramatisation of the issue. Broadband is important. Broadband is a critical enabling technology that is currently driving substantial productivity gains around the world. True broadband will not only make Australian businesses more efficient than they already are but also open up completely new ways of operating—through things like VoIP, IPTV and virtual private networks. True broadband is also a crucial tool for the commercialisation of Australian intellectual property and content. True broadband will be the highway that Australian ICT and digital content companies use to deliver their products to the international marketplace. How many times in Australia have we heard the cry from all sides of politics, ‘If only we could commercialise our brilliant IP; if only it did not always have to go offshore to be developed’? Here is the first step in making sure that we can end that cry.

True broadband gives Australian knowledge economy companies the chance to break down the tyranny of distance and to connect with the global economy on an equal footing. True broadband is the infrastructure we need to stimulate the development of high-end digital content and other knowledge economy businesses in Australia. The federal government’s own broadband advisory group has stated that next generation broadband could produce economic benefits of up to $30 billion per annum to Australia. However, while Australia remains a broadband backwater, these benefits will remain unrealised. Unless the government recognises that Australia has a problem and then develops a plan for remedying this situation, these potential benefits will remain a dream. The minister is so out of touch, not just with the voters but also with the reality of Australia’s broadband performance, that she is continuing to ignore the problem. If the minister cared to look, she would see that the reality on the ground for the state of Australia’s broadband infrastructure is grim indeed.

Contrary to the minister’s comments, the situation is bleak. Do not take my word for it; listen to the chorus of international surveys deriding Australia’s broadband performance. The OECD ranks Australia 17th out of 30 countries for the take-up of 256K broadband. Despite growth off a low base, Australia’s relative position did not change from the previous year. The World Economic Forum ranks Australia 25th in the world in terms of available internet bandwidth; in addition, it ranks Australia’s network readiness at 15th and falling. A recent World Bank study confirms that Australia’s average ADSL speed, barely one megabit, is one of the slowest in the world and is behind countries like Britain, at 13 megabits; France, at 8.4 megabits; Germany, at 6.8 megabits; Canada, at 6.8 megabits; and the United States, at 3.3 megabits. That is right; we are struggling along at the bottom of the pack with, at best, a one-megabit average.

Prominent Australians who are suffering as a result of this situation have also expressed their concern. James Packer, Executive Chairman of Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd, recently described Australia’s broadband position as ‘embarrassing’. He further stated that there is a huge consumer demand for online video that is being held back by Australia’s antiquated broadband. Fairfax—publisher of the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Review and who has a very good website—in its submission to Senator Coonan’s media reform discussion paper, states that the encouragement of broadband is a critical element in Australia’s overall media policy. The submission goes on to state:

... internet speeds are slower and internet pricing is more expensive, than many other developed countries.

So, even if the minister will not admit there is a problem, plenty of other people, both in Australia and overseas, are willing to tell it like it is.

To remedy this situation and to bring Australia back into line with our international peers, Australia needs a massive investment in broadband infrastructure; Australia needs a national fibre-to-the-node network. Despite the minister’s furious spin, Telstra’s antiquated copper network will not be able to deliver the type of bandwidth that Australian businesses and consumers will need in a knowledge economy. This fact was rammed home in a recent report prepared by Tim Smeallie for Citigroup. This report evaluated the fallout of the collapse of the Telstra-ACCC FTN discussions. The report was clear about the technological limitations of Telstra’s existing copper network and ‘misguided reliance on ADSL2+ as a technology substitute for fibre’. That quote does not just blow a hole in but completely sinks the minister’s vision for a copper based future for Australian broadband. The report states:

It is physically impossible for ADSL2+ to deliver 24Mb/s on a mass market basis. Our analysis suggests a realistic average speed of approximately 3Mb/s assuming an average copper loop length of 2km.

A three-megabit solution for Australia’s broadband infrastructure needs is what Senator Helen Coonan, Prime Minister John Howard and the federal coalition government have on offer for Australia. When our international peers are moving to 20-, 30-, 50- and 100-megabit broadband infrastructure, the mob on the other side of the chamber want to tie our hands and feet together at three megabits. The Internet Industry Association noted recently that 80 per cent of Australians would need to have access to at least 10-megabit broadband by 2010—that is, 80 per cent of Australians will need to have access to at least 10-megabit broadband in four years time—in order to keep Australia competitive with our overseas rivals, and the minister is trying to tell us that Australia only needs three-megabit ADSL2+. Clearly, Telstra’s antiquated copper network is not up to the task. The reason that Telstra’s copper network is not up to the task is well identified and described by Citigroup’s technical experts. Citigroup finds:

... distance from the exchange, cross talk, home set-up [reduces speeds by up to 50%], and sub-sea backhaul.

The implications of forcing Australia to rely on ADSL2+ are clear:

Speeds <5Mb/s are insufficient to deliver high quality video products such as IPTV, Video on Demand and Replay TV.

These are the things that people want—the things that people in this country are crying out for—but we have a government that is saying: ‘You don’t really want that. You don’t really need true broadband. You don’t really need to be able to do fast downloads and videos or IPTV. You don’t need video on demand or replay TV.’ That is the government’s position. Citigroup concludes by saying, ‘We will have to wait until 2012 for true broadband, given delays on regulation and build, unless the government decides to intervene.’ That is right—Citibank, that doyen of socialism in the world, the largest investment bank in the world, says what is blindingly obvious to everybody in Australia except the government: government needs to step in and fix this mess.

While this out-of-touch minister is complacently advocating a do-nothing copper future for Australian telecommunications, our international competitors are rapidly moving to an optical fibre world. Countries like Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, the United States and Germany are all currently rolling out optical fibre based networks that are even faster than Telstra’s proposal. Our international competitors understand that fibre is the future. Fibre based technology is taking off around the world, with 52.4 per cent growth in fibre connections in Korea last year. Japan already has 4.6 million fibre-to-the-home broadband subscribers. The case for a fibre future for Australia is clear.

There is one lonely voice on the government side from a member who understands, and that is the Liberal MP Mr Peter Lindsay. In comments reported by the media yesterday, Mr Lindsay stated that Telstra’s decision to abandon its fibre-to-the-node plans as a result of government policy was a ‘disaster’. Mr Lindsay, the lone person in the coalition who understands this debate—do not worry about the minister—went on to state:

As much as others argue that broadband can be provided without fibre-to-the-node, true broadband cannot be provided without it. Australians deserve top shelf broadband and that can only be delivered by fibre optic cable. Without it we will be held back.

I have to say that Mr Lindsay is 100 per cent right. But, as the minister indicated in question time today, she has had Mr Lindsay brought in and she has corrected his views. Poor Mr Lindsay. It is a horrible thought.

Australia does need top-shelf broadband, and this can only be delivered by fibre optic cable. Australian broadband users can only hope that Mr Lindsay is sending this message to Helen Coonan in the coalition party room. Maybe even a senator as smart as Senator Michael Ronaldson, who is speaking next, knows deep down, in his gut, that Australia needs fibre—that is, ADSL2+, if you are relying on Telstra. Are you relying on Telstra, one of your favourite companies, Senator Ronaldson? Do you want to sign up your life to Telstra’s ADSL2+, Senator Ronaldson? I think not. As I said, hopefully a few more courageous Liberals will be explaining the facts of life to Senator Coonan regarding what is going on in their electorates. The problem is not going to fix itself. In order to deliver this massive infrastructure investment, government leadership is required. Australia’s position in broadband is so dire that the government must take the lead to bring Australia back into line with our international competitors. The Internet Industry Association has correctly identified that the only way Australia can remain competitive with our international peers in broadband is through ‘significant and meaningful changes in attitude and leadership from the government and policy makers’. That is you, Senator Ronaldson.

This is the nub of the issue. Senator Helen Coonan is the minister for communications. Ensuring that Australia has access to world-class telecommunications infrastructure is her responsibility, but, like John Howard, she has no plan for Australia’s future. With the collapse of Telstra’s fibre-to-the-node plans, the minister has no plan to transition Australia to a fibre world. She has no plan for the future. After 10 years of pork-barrelling in rural and regional Australia, the Howard government does not know how to provide infrastructure leadership anymore. Instead of recognising the problem and trying to address it, the minister is in denial. As Kim Beazley, leader of the Labor Party, said this week, she is shepherding Australia down an IT goat track. She is shepherding the Australian economy onto an IT goat track while the rest of the world is building five-lane superhighways.

Three months ago, the minister was taking credit for Telstra’s fibre-to-the-node plans in her address to the World Congress on Information Technology. She went overseas and spruiked it. She told everybody in the world what a fantastic thing was going to happen—that is, that Telstra was going to roll out a fibre network. They were all her own words in a speech given in the United States. But, now that the plans have fallen apart, she is trying to convince Australians that we do not need this cutting edge technology, that we can get by.

Labor believes that government leadership to deliver 21st century infrastructure of this kind is necessary to sustain Australia’s economic prosperity for our children. Labor wants to give Australian businesses and families the best infrastructure available. In contrast to the minister’s inaction, Labor has been playing a leading role in the Australian telecommunications infrastructure debate. Late last year, Kim Beazley released Labor’s infrastructure blueprint. This blueprint set out a series of policies for remedying Australia’s current infrastructure shortcomings. This blueprint gave broadband infrastructure equal footing with roads, water and electricity infrastructure. So let us be clear: when Labor talks infrastructure, it is not just talking roads, it is not just talking ports and it is not just talking water or electricity—it is talking broadband, because this is the technology of the future.

Labor also posed a series of practical policies designed to improve Australia’s broadband performance. The blueprint committed Labor to setting targets for Australia’s utilisation of broadband in the areas of price, speed and accessibility and to providing the leadership to achieve these targets. It also committed Labor to conducting an audit of Australia’s existing optical fibre infrastructure, including unutilised ‘dark fibre’. Labor produced a plan—Labor’s Broadband Plan. The belief that government has a leadership role to play in the delivery of telecommunications infrastructure in Australia is the foundation of Labor’s Broadband Plan. Labor’s plan delivers this by committing to a series of regulatory reforms and public funding. Labor’s plan called for the creation of a joint venture company that would own and operate a national open access fibre-to-the-node network. The joint venture infrastructure owner would be separated from retailers to ensure competition.

In this regard, Labor’s plan has much in common with the subsequently released Optus-led G9 proposal. Investment certainty would be delivered. Labor’s plan also involves nation-building public investment to lift Australia out of the communications dark ages. Labor’s plan made available up to $2.7 billion in public funding to extend the reach of this fibre network to as many people as possible and to ensure 98 per cent of Australians have access to a minimum of six megabits per second broadband. (Time expired)