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

Yes. Thank you, Mr President, I do. I was just having difficulty hearing. I did want to point out that this government has invested about $4 billion in upgrading telecommunications services since we have been in government. Just since I have been in this portfolio, I have announced over $3½ billion to ensure that Australia is certainly not left behind but is able to compete effectively with broadband.

We have connected over a million premises and, with small businesses, we have been very keen to ensure that they have been able to access what they need to live, work and do business in rural and regional Australia. We currently have a new plan, a new broadband rollout and open access arrangement for rural and regional Australia that apparently the Labor Party would simply just roll over or cancel. The people of Australia need certainty, and the best that the Labor Party have been able to come up with is a pie-in-the-sky, uncosted proposal that is rising at about a billion dollars every 12 hours. They have no idea how to deliver it and no idea how to actually use the market, where the market will work or how to invest in rural and regional Australia for services that are absolutely needed.

It is also important to know that Australia’s ICT capacity has been underpinned by access to fast broadband. It has contributed between 50 per cent and 80 per cent of productivity growth to the services and manufacturing sectors over the last two decades. It would not have been able to do that if this government had not, as new technology became available, enabled the conditions for broadband to be made available. So we will continue to ensure, with our Australian broadband guarantee, that all Australians, irrespective of where they live, will be able to continue to access services and will be able to do it even in the most remote parts of Australia.