Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It may come as a shock, but there is one thing on which Senator Cormann and I agree: I hope the Socceroos do well too. There you go, Senator Cormann. You and I have agreed on something for the first time in quite a few years.

I relish the opportunity to stand up and make my contribution to this debate. Thankfully it is not broadcast because, as much as we cherish the opportunity to speak on behalf of our state and our country, some of the contributions have been very, very misleading. Before I go on to talk about the great announcement yesterday by Minister Conroy, I must say to you, Mr Deputy President, that I have known you well and that I am aware of your commitment to rural and regional Australia over the years—and I have had the pleasure of working with you closely on a number of occasions—and I have to remark that I think we are losing track of a couple of things. One is that this national high-speed broadband network was a clear Rudd Labor government commitment prior to the last election. This is not something that we have just pulled out of our hats.

When we went to the 2007 election we made it very clear to the people of Australia that they had choices. We made it clear to not only city dwellers but rural and regional Australians that they definitely had some very clear choices between, at the time, the Rudd Labor opposition and the Howard government. We said very clearly that we would roll out a high-speed national broadband network to 98 per cent of Australians. Australians had a lot of choices and one of the choices was to go with us and see that happen or stick with the Howard government after 12 years where nothing had happened. This is what is so annoying.

We also hear other statements about spending and comments that this is not going to deliver anything. This is truly going to deliver a fantastic opportunity for all Australians in rural and regional Australia and in the cities. It gets a little bit annoying when we hear some of those statements. I am in touch with many Western Australians, Mr Deputy President, as you are with South Australians, in the weeks when we are not here. We have to continually remember that this country, this world, has just come through the greatest financial challenge since the 1930s. With all due respect, it is easy for those opposite to push that aside. They do not like to admit it, but if we had not taken those quick and decisive actions, as we did with the national infrastructure stimulus packages, this country would have gone into a technical recession.

We still see daily on our TVs what is happening in Greece and other parts of Europe. We have not come out the other end flying at this stage. We are still not out of the woods. I know that is a corny cliche, but we really are not out of the woods yet. So I applaud Senator Conroy’s announcement yesterday of the $11 billion deal with Telstra to assist in rolling out the National Broadband Network. I want to quote a paragraph from an article in today’s Age by Mr Mark Davis and Mr Ari Sharp. I think the first paragraph really does say it in a nutshell. It says:

Telstra will hand over millions of customers to the federal government’s new national broadband network and close its ageing copper and cable networks in an $11 billion deal that will fundamentally reshape the communications industry.

It goes on to say:

… the deal will allow the new services to be rolled out faster and more cheaply while delivering up to 10 million customers to the new government-owned business.

Ten million! There are 10 million Australians out there who will have access to faster broadband. For small businesses, for students, for pensioners or for whoever, what a fantastic initiative! It really is sad that those opposite take every opportunity to slag off, bag, carpet—whatever you may call it—any initiative that we come up with.