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

I thank Senator Sterle for his ongoing interest in this nation-building initiative. Just eight months ago I was in Mount Isa in Queensland to mark the start of the work to lay 6,000 kilometres of optical-fibre backbone links targeting six priority regional areas that were identified by the ACCC as having the least competitive backhaul across Australia. These links, coordinated under the $250 million Regional Backbone Blackspots Program, provide the communications links that connect our towns, our cities and our rural areas to each other and the world. It is a critical input for the delivery of affordable broadband services to residents and businesses in regional Australia and represents the first building blocks of the NBN on mainland Australia.

I am happy to announce that, last Thursday, I celebrated the halfway mark in the delivery of this important infrastructure. In fact, to be accurate, we have now completed 60 per cent of this fibre rollout, and the first links are scheduled to be completed on time and on budget in March next year. This demonstrates that the Gillard government is getting on with delivering the National Broadband Network for all Australians, no matter where they live, and that the Gillard government is serious about closing the digital divide, while those opposite—and some should know better if they listen to their electorate—seek only to delay and demolish this essential national infrastructure. Those opposite who continue to try to delay this, who continue to try to delay the people of Geraldton in Western Australia— (Time expired)