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

I thank Senator Crossin for her ongoing interest in this area. The National Broadband Network will ensure that Australians, no matter where they live or work, will have access to affordable, high-speed broadband. The NBN is a critical nation-building project that will set our economy up for future growth and productivity. It will support massive opportunities to drive market efficiencies and create jobs. It will transform service delivery in the areas of health and education, and it will create small business opportunities around the country. It will connect our regional towns and communities to our cities and the wider world in real time, helping to overcome the tyranny of distance.

The rollout is already well underway. The first live services will start in Tasmania in just a few short weeks. The rollout of 6,000 kilometres of fibre-optic backbone links to 100 regional locations around Australia—including Darwin, Emerald, Longreach, Mount Isa, Geraldton, Victor Harbor, Broken Hill and south-west Gippsland—is progressing on track, with over 800 kilometres of fibre already laid.

NBN Co. has announced its first five release sites on mainland Australia, which will be rolled out in the second half of this year. The historic announcement of a heads of agreement between Telstra and the NBN Co., combined with policy reform— (Time expired)