Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I think that is fairly obvious, Senator Brandis, certainly at the federal level. I am distressed to say that the Queensland government have not put the sort of pressure on Senator Conroy that they should have to ensure that we have an adequate service in Queensland. I would have liked to have seen the Queensland government pick up the phone to their Labor mates. You know Premier Bligh has very close connections with both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer. She could have got in touch with them, or Senator Conroy, and said: ‘For the good of the Queensland economy, we must have a decent broadband system and it must be there urgently. Never mind about the long-term process that Senator Conroy has embarked upon which will not end up delivering services in rural and regional Queensland; let’s go with the OPEL project. Let’s ensure that there is service available to Queenslanders at the earliest possible time.’

I feel ashamed that my state government, led by Ms Bligh, has not stood up for us, has not had the backbone and the fortitude to get in there and fight for Queenslanders. As Senator Mason just said, the economy of our state is falling behind, and it is going to fall more behind the rest of Australia because we do not have an adequate broadband service, particularly for rural and regional Australia.